Consumers Energy wants another $248 million from its natural gas customers in Michigan, submitting a request Monday just months after it’s last $35 million went into effect.

Jackson-based Consumers submitted a request with the Michigan Public Service Commission on Monday to increase residential rates for its 1.8 million customers across 68 Lower Peninsula counties by roughly 12% next year.

The rate hike would generate $248 million for Consumers, which reported annual revenue of $7.5 billion in 2023.

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Consumers contends it needs the money to “replace up to 10,000 decades-old natural gas service lines that directly serve customers, plus put valves on major pipelines that can be remotely operated to respond to emergencies.”

“This month’s cold weather provides a real-life reminder of the need for a strong natural gas system that keeps our friends and neighbors warm,” Holly Bowers, Consumers Energy’s vice president of gas engineering and supply, said in a statement. “Our Natural Gas Delivery Plan is ensuring our system remains safe in all weather, while continuing to get cleaner for Michigan’s environment and costing the typical household less than $3 a day.”

The request comes just a few months after Consumers implemented its last rate request in October, which ultimately amounted to $35 million for the company after legal wrangling with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and others.

The 1.5% October increase for residential customers followed a 3.9% increase in 2023, MLive reports.

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Consumers Energy and DTE Energy have an effective monopoly on energy in Michigan, home to some of the least reliable service in the nation.

The three-member, governor-appointed and utility funded MPSC virtually never rejects rate requests. MPSC officials often gain high-level jobs in the energy field, a Detroit Free Press investigation revealed last year.

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, House Republican and Democratic campaign committees, and others.

DTE’s 1.3 million natural gas customers received a bigger bill this month after the MPSC in November approved a $113.8 million rate hike, as well as ever increasing surcharges through 2029.

The MPSC is now considering a separate $456.4 million request from DTE to raise rates on millions of Michiganders who rely on its lackluster electrical service. That money, the company claims, it needed to improve energy grid reliability reduce outages.

That request followed just four months after the MPSC approved DTE for a $368 million annual rate increase.

Whether for electrical service or natural gas, both Consumers and DTE have pursued rapid-fire double-digit rate increases in recent years that have reaped billions from customers with little to show for it.

“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 at a DTE protest earlier this year.

Some fed up with the situation are now demanding lawmakers take action on pending legislation to block political contributions from regulated monopoly corporations like Consumers and DTE, Sludge reports.

While a recent poll from the Taking Back Our Power Coalition shows 81% of Michiganders want a ban on contributions from regulated monopolies, the odds the legislation will pass in a lame duck session packed with plenty of other priorities and Democratic infighting are unclear.

Most state lawmakers also have a financial incentive to avoid that kind of legislation.

At least 102 of 148 lawmakers in Lansing got where they are with the help of cash from PACs tied to DTE and Consumers, Bridge Michigan reported last year.

“That’s early 70 percent of all legislators,” according to the news site. “In all, the PACs donated more than $2 million to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, lawmakers and legislative caucus funds from January 2017 to December 2022. DTE’s PAC gave $1.2 million, while Consumers’ PAC donated $855,000.”