DTE Energy Co. is asking Michigan regulators to allow it to charge residential households about 8% more for natural gas next year, and the attorney general is planning on a fight.
In a request to regulators this week, DTE lawyers wrote that the proposed increase is needed for pay for infrastructure, worker salaries, lower forecasted sales and maintenance expenses.
“Natural gas plays a vital role in everyday life — from heating homes to cooking meals,” DTE President and Chief Operating Officer Bob Richard said in a statement. “This request allows us to continue investing in the safety and reliability of our system, while keeping costs low for the customers who depend on us for generations to come.”
The Michigan Public Service Commission decides whether to allow utilities to increase rates. The commission has 10 months to rule on this case. DTE serves 1.3 million natural gas customers in Michigan, including Metro Detroit, midwestern lower Michigan, much of northern lower Michigan, and parts of the Upper Peninsula.
On Friday, Attorney General Dana Nessel said she planned to intervene in the rate case.
“Time and again, we’ve seen DTE try to pass on to its customers millions of dollars in unnecessary expenses, such as private jet travel for its executives,” Nessel said in a statement. “My office will go through this proposal with a fine-tooth comb to make sure every dollar DTE wants to collect from ratepayers is tied to a clear and measurable benefit. Michigan families should not be asked to pay more for utility services simply to pad corporate profits.”
The move comes as DTE seeks to add a new, energy-intensive customer — a hyperscale data center planned for Saline Township — and less than a year after the commission approved an increase in DTE’s gas rates that allowed the utility to collect from ratepayers an additional $113.8 million each year, or about $2 more for each customer each month.
In seeking that increase, DTE had initially requested to raise rates enough to generate an additional $266 million, but the commission ultimately approved only about 42.5% of that total, following testimony from ratepayers, as well as Nessel.
“If recent history tells us anything, it’s that this new rate hike request will be filled with costs that simply cannot be justified,” Nessel said.
In late September, the MPSC approved a $157 million natural gas rate increase for Consumers Energy that 1.8 million residential customers began seeing on their bills Nov. 1. Nessel had urged the commission to reduce the rate hike to $75.5 million.
