About 1.3 million DTE natural gas customers will get a bigger bill next month, with additional increases through 2029, following recent approvals by the Michigan Public Service Commission.

The MPSC on Thursday approved a DTE request to hike rates by about $113.8 million, as well as an “Infrastructure Recovery Mechanism” surcharge that will run through 2029, the Detroit Free Press reports.

The former will add about $2 to the monthly bill of a typical residential consumer using 100 cubic feet of natural gas per month, while the latter will add another 66 cents. The MPSC approved the recovery mechanism to automatically increase annually to $6.28 in 2029.

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DTE initially sought a $266 million rate hike the company contends is necessary to pay for rising operational and maintenance costs, and infrastructure tied to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s emissions goals.

DTE complained in a statement cited by WNEM that the reduced rate hike approved by the MPSC “may inhibit our ability to implement the work that will allow us to continue providing the level of service that our customers have come to depend on.”

“We’re currently assessing the rate order’s impact on the progress of our work, including our gas main renewal program – the upgrade of older cast iron pipes with modern, more durable materials that not only provide increased safety and reliability but also reduced emissions,” the statement read.

“While we reexamine our plans, our focus remains on safety – for our employees, our customers and the communities we serve.”

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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who intervened in the rate case, credited herself for saving customers about $153 million, effectively cutting the final order by $153 million.

“The Commission’s decision to slash DTE’s requested rate hike by more than half will save consumers hundreds of millions of dollars on their utility bills,” Nessel said in a statement. “This is money that families can now use for their own needs rather than seeing it spent on corporate jet travel for utility executives.”

Nessel noted the rate increase amounts to roughly 2.3% of a typical residential gas bill, instead of the nearly 10% requested by DTE.

Corporate jet travel for DTE’s combined natural gas and electric business totaled $256,391 in 2022, and the company requested $333,000 for the two companies in recent filings, according to the Detroit Free Press.

The reduced rate hike is “the lowest rate granted to any utility in many years,” according to Nessel, but that’s likely little comfort to low income customers struggling to cover repeated double-digit increases approved by the MPSC for both DTE and Consumers Energy, the state’s largest service providers.

The MPSC, comprised of three members appointed by the governor, is currently considering a $456.4 million rate hike request from DTE for 2.2 million customers in Southeast Michigan. That request followed just four months after the commission approved DTE for a $368 million annual rate increase.

It’s the same deal with Consumers, which is requesting a $303 million rate hike, filed two months after the MPSC approved a $92 million rate increase in March.

Those requests, which officials have said are necessary to “build a grid of the future,” have prompted protests from customers fed up with some of the least reliable service in the country.

“It’s a daily struggle to afford our utility bills and it is a daily struggle to deal with the numerous power outages that customers experience,” Layla Elabed, with the grassroots group We the People, told Michigan Public, noting DTE investors reap more benefits from the rate hikes than customers.

“When the power goes out, hundreds of thousands of families are left sitting in the cold or the scorching heat without power, because DTE prioritizes profits over affordable reliable electricity for customers.”

Whether the MPSC gets the message remains to be seen, but a Detroit Free Press investigation last year illustrates a cozy relationship between DTE, Consumers and the commissioners appointed to regulate them.

DTE and Consumers pay for 80% of the commission’s budget through assessments, and none of the 4,520 orders the MPSC has voted on since at least 2010 have been voted down. The Free Press investigation also revealed the vast majority of commissioners since 1990 have secured jobs in the energy field.

Both DTE and Consumers also contribute heavily to politicians through political action committees the companies contend does not involve ratepayer cash.

The DTE Energy Company Political Action Committee’s second quarter 2024 report shows it collected $106,661 in contributions, mostly from company executives, and spent $73,200. The expenditures included $10,000 direct contributions to each of the Senate Republicans and Democratic campaign committees, and House Republican and Democratic campaign committees.

Plenty more went to individual lawmakers.

And despite Whitmer’s claims that her Michigan Healthy Climate plan will “lower utility costs for families, create good-paying jobs, and grow our advanced manufacturing economy,” recent reports suggest otherwise.

Federal regulators, regional grid officials, and a new study of the impact of “net zero” energy plans in seven Great Lakes states predict it could be lights out in Michigan by 2032 if officials don’t change course.

“The problem is the subtraction of dispatchable resources such as coal and gas,” Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Mark Christie said during testimony to Congress last year. “The core of the problem is actually very simple. We are retiring dispatchable (quickly launched) generating resources (coal and natural gas) at a pace and in an amount that is far too fast and far too great and is threatening our ability to keep the lights on.”

“The Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator, the grid operator for much of the Midwest, projects that by 2032, none of the five Great Lakes states in its territory will have enough electricity capacity to meet even the most conservative projection of demand load,” according to Shorting the Great Lakes Grid, a Mackinac Center report from research analyst Joshua Antonini and Jason Hayes, director of energy and environmental policy.