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Attorney General Nessel Seeks to Slash DTE’s New Half-Billion-Dollar Rate Hike by Nearly 75%
August 25, 2025
LANSING — On Friday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed testimony in DTE’s latest electric rate case (PDF), recommending a reduction of nearly 75% and millions in savings for Michigan ratepayers. DTE filed its request with the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) in April seeking to hike rates for residential customers by 11%. The requested increase of more than $574 million was filed only three months after DTE received approval by the MPSC to increase rates by $217 million.
Attorney General Nessel urged the MSPC to slash the rate hike down to 2.5% for Michigan households. Attorney General Nessel is calling for a nearly 75% cut to the corporation's current request to bill Michigan customers hundreds of millions more than they already pay on their electric bills. Her testimony includes recommendations to re-prioritize customer dollars toward vegetation management and tree trimming activities, which have shown to be much more successful at decreasing customer outages, as opposed to the higher cost capital expenses preferred by DTE for their higher profitability under the State regulatory framework.
“DTE is once again showing us where its priorities lie – and it isn’t with Michigan ratepayers,” Nessel said. “Just months after being granted a $200 million rate hike, DTE is back at the trough demanding half a billion dollars more from its customers. Our thorough review shows that nearly 75% of this proposed hike can’t be demonstrated to meaningfully improve service or do so cost effectively and stands only to enrich millionaire executives and far-flung shareholders. At some point, this endless cycle of rate hike after rate hike from Consumers Energy and DTE must end. Why not now? Michigan ratepayers deserve utility companies that deliver affordable, reliable energy, not ones that treat them like blank checks.”
The Attorney General has helped save Michigan consumers nearly $4 billion by intervening in utility cases before the MPSC. DTE sells electricity to approximately 2.3 million customers in Southeast Michigan and natural gas to 1.3 million customers across the state.
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