Citizens Utility Board of Michigan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, May 23, 2019

LANSING – The Citizens Utility Board of Michigan (CUB of MI) today applauds the outcome of an approved settlement agreement sparing residential customers a massive rate hike originally proposed by the Upper Peninsula Power Company in UPPCO Rate Case U-20276 before the Michigan Public Service Commission.

UPPCO originally asked for an additional $9 million per year in revenue. Under this settlement agreement approved today by the MPSC, they will be allowed to collect only $1.8 million.

“We’re happy to see that under this agreement, UPPCO’s residential customers won’t be taking the brunt of this rate hike as we’ve seen in other recent Michigan utility rate case decisions,“ said Amy Bandyk, executive director of CUB of MI. “We’re glad Attorney General Dana Nessel got involved to fight this exorbitant rate increase request.”

Attorney General Nessel and U.P. consumer group Citizens Against Rate Excess (CARE), who intervened in this rate case, were able to reach this settlement with UPPCO so that residential ratepayers won’t have to pay for the new rate increase. Their rates per kilowatt-hour will actually go down slightly. UPPCO also dropped their request to increase their fixed monthly charge by $10 per month.

“Overall, while we think the electricity rates that UPPCO’s residential customers pay in the U.P. are still way too high, this is definitely a step in the right direction,” said Bandyk.

LANSING – The Citizens Utility Board of Michigan (CUB of MI), an organization advocating for Michigan residential ratepayers, today issued the following statement regarding the Michigan Public Service Commission’s approval of a rate increase by DTE Energy.

“At a time when Michigan residents have the highest electricity costs in the Midwest, this rate increase hits residential customers hardest, increasing their rates further,” said Amy Bandyk, executive director of CUB of MI. “We compliment the Public Service Commission for not accepting DTE’s full rate increase request, but we’re concerned that residential customers still take the brunt of this rate hike. It is especially unfair to low-income customers who can barely pay for the rates they are presently charged. We urge the Public Service Commission to stand up for Michigan families and hold big utility companies accountable.”

“We’re pleased to see that the Public Service Commission rejected DTE’s request for automatic rate increases over the next three years that would have increased DTE’s revenue by almost a billion dollars and would have increased residential rates by almost 30%,” said Bandyk. “We also oppose increasing monthly fixed charges for residential customers and are glad to see the Commission rejected DTE’s proposal to raise them.”

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The Citizens Utility Board of Michigan’s mission is to represent the interests of residential energy customers across the state. Our goal is to educate and engage Michigan consumers in support of cost-effective investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy and against unfair rate increase requests. To learn more, visit www.cubofmichigan.org.

From the Michigan Public Service Commission: https://www.michigan.gov/mpsc/0,4639,7-159-16400_17280-494350--,00.html

AG, advocacy groups seek to curb increasing electricity costs

MiBiz: West Michigan Business News

By Andy Balaskovitz

https://mibiz.com/sections/energy/ag-advocacy-groups-seek-to-curb-increasing-electricity-costs

LANSING – The Citizens Utility Board of Michigan (CUB of MI) today applauded Attorney General Dana Nessel for standing up for Upper Peninsula energy customers by opposing Upper Peninsula Power Company’s (UPPCO) nearly $10 million proposed rate increase.

LANSING – The Citizens Utility Board of Michigan (CUB), an organization advocating for Michigan ratepayers, announced its launch today. CUB’s mission is to represent the interests of residential energy customers across the state. The organization will educate and engage Michigan customers in support of cost-effective investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy, and hold utility companies accountable for unfair rate increase requests.

We look forward to sharing news from our organization.