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LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel last week filed testimony before the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) in the latest Consumers Energy rate hike case. Consumers Energy is currently seeking to raise electric rates by approximately $456 million annually, which would hike residential electric rates by 9.8%. Attorney General Nessel argues the MPSC should approve less than half of Consumers Energy’s desired rake hike.
Consumers Energy is also seeking to increase its profit margin on capital investments to 10.25%, which would make it the highest return on equity in the state and likely one of the highest in the nation. The Attorney General filed testimony with the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan arguing the MPSC should limit Consumers Energy’s return on equity to just 9.20%, cut their requested rate hike by 53%, and consider affordability when reviewing this rate hike due to the increasing level of residential disconnections with the already existing high electric rates. The Attorney General also filed testimony with the Michigan Environmental Council, the Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council on a number of other important issues for customers.
“Just like DTE, Consumers Energy inflates every rate request with unsupported and unjustifiable costs, to bill their customers at higher and higher gas and electric rates,” said Attorney General Nessel. “It is likely the MPSC will simply split the difference between the well-reasoned numbers my office proposes and the obscene demand from the utility, as they’ve done many times. In this time of serious cost concerns in households all across Michigan, from groceries to gasoline, from the gas bill to the electric bill, it is remarkable our utilities continue to demand, and receive, rate hikes as large as we’ve ever seen.”
Since 2020, the MPSC has approved nearly $800 million in rate hikes for Consumers Energy, which sells electricity to approximately 1.9 million customers throughout Michigan. Consumers Energy announced its pursuit of this rate hike on April 3, 2026, just seven days after the MPSC approved a $276 million rate hike for the company, and filed its application to hike rates by $456 million in June.
The Attorney General has saved Michigan consumers more than $4.6 billion by intervening in utility cases before the MPSC. Recent rate hike requests from DTE and Consumers Energy have included such inappropriate costs as private jet travel for staff, millions in executive incentive compensation tied to maximizing shareholder returns, and other unsupported expenditures that could not be demonstrated to be reasonable or prudent. Other rate hike cases currently open before the MPSC include Consumers Energy’s natural gas rate hike request (U-21981), DTE’s natural gas rate hike request (U-22241) and electric rate hike request (U-22046), SEMCO Energy Gas Company’s natural gas rate hike request (U-22002), and Upper Peninsula Power Company’s electric rate hike request (U-22032).
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