State Rep. Donni Steele is standing with vulnerable families today after the Michigan Public Service Commission authorized DTE Energy to raise customer rates by $368 million — a 6.4% increase.

“The truth has been revealed about the grinch’s new green energy plan,” said Steele, R-Orion Township. “The governor’s radical new policies push the implementation costs of unreliable green energy onto the consumer. The rate hike cripples families with even higher energy costs. Money that should’ve gone toward family dinners and children’s gifts is being redirected to compensate for past energy policies.”

DTE said it needed the rate increase in part to comply with the state’s existing clean energy goals; these requirements are much smaller than Democrats’ new clean energy mandates. The “100% clean energy by 2040” laws Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed last week will effectively ban natural gas power plants by requiring expensive, impractical technology, and shift to less reliable wind and solar power sources. The bills repealed a rate cap, a move that will allow utilities to pass on 100% of the green energy implementation expenses to ratepayers.

“Struggling families are already setting their thermostats to temperatures way below comfortable this holiday season to compensate for inflation,” Steele said. “Democrat policies like increased energy rates will continue to force families and businesses to leave the state altogether.”

###