MARSHALL, MI (WTVB)- Consumers Energy is proposing a $436 million rate hike, the largest in recent years, which would increase costs for residential homes by approximately 13.3 percent.
The proposal is pending approval from the Michigan Public Service Commission.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel expressed strong opposition to the proposed increase.
Nessel said “It’s appalling that they are asking for more money,” she said, noting that Consumers Energy had recently been approved for a $154 million rate hike. “They haven’t even started to spend the money that they got from the last rate hike. How do they know that they need this much more for the next rate increase? So I find it just to be appalling.”
Nessel focused on the impact on consumers, saying , “It’s pricing people out of their ability to afford electricity.”
She also criticized the lack of choice for consumers, as utility companies are assigned to customers without alternatives. “If you think that the service is poor and that your power is constantly going out, you can’t go to some other company and say, I’m gonna hire somebody else to do this job for me.
Nessel is urging the Michigan Public Service Commission to scrutinize the proposed rate increase, saying her office will intervene, which they have the statutory ability to do, and to review all the documents associated with the rate increase.
The proposal will be reviewed in a hearing before the commission, where Nessel plans to present testimony advocating for a lower rate increase.
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