Michigan’s largest gas companies have ramped up spending to nearly $1.8 billion a year for infrastructure upgrades, and a recent study suggests it’s going to double customer rates in the coming years.

“What’s most important is that Michiganders need to start thinking now about the future of gas and what can be done now to protect ratepayers from being saddled with these costs,” Amy Bandyk, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan, told MLive.

The board in April released an independent report charting the rise of capital investments on pipelines and other infrastructure from the state’s three largest natural gas utilities from a combined $578 million in 2013 to $1.73 billion a decade later.

“The scale of these annual investments is striking: the utilities now spend more on gas infrastructure each year than Detroit’s entire annual capital budget ($650 million) and nearly 15 times more than what has been spent to date addressing the Flint water crisis ($116 million as of 2024),” according to the report.

By 2050, Consumers Energy, DTE Energy, and SEMCO Energy Gas Co. are set to invest nearly $60 billion on gas infrastructure.

“To compensate the companies for these investments customers will be asked to pay multiples of these investment amounts through base rates,” researchers wrote. “Approximately $77,819 million (63%) of customer payments from 2025 to 2050 will go toward compensating the companies for the capital investments they made over this period.”

Assuming business as usual, Consumers customers can expect their bills to increase by 158%, while it’s 120% for DTE customers, and 106% for SEMCO.

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“These projections likely underestimate the actual rate impacts as they do not account for potential customer migration away from natural gas,” the report read.

The Citizens Utility Board of Michigan suggests it all runs counter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s climate goals, which call for the state to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

“The projected $58 billion in gas infrastructure that the state’s three largest Local Distribution Companies (LDC’s) are on track to spend not only appears to contradict these goals, but also actively makes achieving these targets more difficult by potentially maintaining current levels of emissions from gas combustion,” the report read.

The report comes as Jackson-based Consumers is pursuing a request with the Michigan Public Service Commission to increase residential rates for its 1.8 million customers across 68 Lower Peninsula counties by 12% this year.

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

The Governor Whitmer-appointed MPSC approved a $153.8M Consumers Energy rate increase after an energy bill hike only three months ago. Meanwhile, Consumers Energy just purchased 800 acres in Oceana County for solar sprawl, and a customer rate hike will help pay for it all.… https://t.co/pWukwSjFCc pic.twitter.com/j1Q6HIauy3

— Heather Dow (@PatriotPostGirl) March 22, 2025

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.”

The request in December followed 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.

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

It’s the same situation with repeated double-digit rate requests from both for electrical service, creating double-whammy of rising utility costs many Michiganders can’t afford.

“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 last year.

Many frustrated customers point to the three-member, governor-appointed and utility funded MPSC, which rarely rejects rate requests. Others point to Whitmer’s climate goals.

A Detroit Free Press investigation revealed MPSC officials often gain high-level jobs in the energy field once they leave, and enjoy conferences at fancy resorts funded by the companies they’re expected to regulate.

Both DTE and Consumers also contribute heavily to politicians through political action committees that the companies allege do not use 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.

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 poll from the Taking Back Our Power Coalition shows 81% of Michiganders want a ban on contributions from regulated monopolies, the odds of that happening seem slim.

A Bridge Michigan analysis in 2023 found nearly 70% of lawmakers in the legislature, at least 102 of 148 at the time, ran campaigns funded in part by PACs tied to DTE and Consumers.

“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,” according to the analysis.