Attorney General to Review, Contest Consumers Energy’s Latest Rate Hike Request

LANSING – Today, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed her notice of intervention in Consumers Energy’s latest rate case before the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). In this case, Consumers Energy requests a $248 million annual hike to its gas rates, which, if approved, would increase rates for residential ratepayers by 12%. This rate hike request comes only five months after Consumers Energy received authority to increase its gas rates by $35 million. 

Attorney General Nessel intends to intervene in this rate case as she does in all utility rate increase requests before the MPSC. As she has in every rate case, the Attorney General and her team will carefully scrutinize the filing to ensure customers do not pay additional costs without commensurate, quantifiable benefits. In Consumers Energy’s previous gas rate case this year, Attorney General Nessel, through this intervention, helped to reduce the company’s natural gas rate hike by nearly 75%. The Attorney General’s testimony in that case argued that a significant majority of the intended costs to be funded by the rate hike were not properly justified nor chiefly to the benefit of the ratepayers.  

“Consumers Energy is seeking to hike gas rates yet again, only five months after their last rate hike was approved by the MPSC,” Nessel said. “My office will carefully review this request to ensure Consumers Energy is not once again attempting to fatten their rate hike by including expenses they cannot justify to the MPSC, like they did last time when we worked to slash their rate hike by 75%. We will continue to work to hold the utilities accountable and keep unjustified costs off ratepayers’ bills.”  

The Attorney General has saved Michigan consumers over $3.4 billion by intervening in utility cases before the MPSC. Consumers Energy sells electricity to approximately 1.9 million customers throughout Michigan and natural gas to 1.8 million customers across the state.