State Rep. Greg Alexander, of Carsonville, today underscored an announced rate hike for DTE customers in Michigan – just days after new laws were signed that require utilities to meet impractical timelines for renewable energy and are projected to cost ratepayers even more.

The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) approved a $368 million total rate increase for customers last week. The panel disclosed that a typical residential customer who uses 500 kilowatt hours of electricity per month will see an increase of $6.51 on their monthly bill – an increase of over 6%.

DTE said the rate increase was needed in part to comply with the state’s existing energy goals, but the current requirements are much less stringent than what lies ahead.

“It didn’t take long for these green energy proposals to be exposed for the bill of goods that they are,” Alexander said. “Utilities were inevitably going to have to cover costs for infrastructure build outs to accelerate this state-mandated shift to green energy. Who did everyone think was going to cover that once these projects start to get going? Customers are going to cover it in the form of higher rates. This is a far cry from the promises by proponents of these plans that they’d actually lower people’s rates.

“These new laws are creating pay cuts for people across Michigan in real-time. They are part of a growing trend of bad policy moves that are making our state less affordable.”

The new laws require all utilities to utilize 100% clean energy by 2040. They also will shift power away from local governments by giving the MPSC the authority to site large solar and wind projects to accommodate the massive overhaul to green energy. The legislation would serve as a workaround to local needs and diminish the roles of local elected officials.

Alexander advocated for practical updates to the plans as they proceeded through the Legislature. He proposed a pair of amendments to the plan that would protect Michigan’s prominent agriculture industry. One would have allowed top agricultural producing counties to be exempt from the MPSC’s overreach, but they were not adopted by the Democrat majority.

A recent analysis published from the Mackinac Center disclosed that a net zero energy plan could cost Michigan rate payers upwards of $200 billion overall in additional energy costs.

“People across our region and the state continue to struggle with their budgets,” Alexander said. “Now we have laws on the books that will make it more costly for people to cook and heat their homes through higher electricity bills. This is the wrong approach for hard-working people and job providers in Michigan. That was clear from the start of this push, but a radical national agenda in the Green New Deal was deemed to be more important than people’s pocketbooks and input from our communities.”