MPSC Approves $157.5 Million Consumers Energy Natural Gas Rate Hike as Attorney General Nessel Challenges Company’s Electric Rate Case

LANSING – Today, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) approved yet another natural gas rate hike for Consumers Energy, allowing the company to collect an additional $157.5 million in revenue from its ratepayers. While the approved rate hike is 37% lower than Consumers Energy’s original request for a $248 million rate hike, due in part to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s continued advocacy on behalf of ratepayers, the order is tens of millions higher than recommendations by the Department of Attorney General and the MPSC’s Administrative Law Judge (PDF).

Consumers Energy filed this rate increase case in December 2024, seeking permission to bill its customers an additional $248 million annually, on top of current rates, amounting to a 12% residential rate hike. In her testimony, Attorney General Nessel argued the company’s requested rate hike for customers should be reduced by nearly 70% to $76.5 million.

“It is disappointing that the MPSC approved a rate hike far above not only my office’s recommendation, but even beyond its own judge’s finding that only $142 million was justified,” Nessel said. “Michigan families deserve a regulator that puts their interests first, yet this order still forces Consumers Energy ratepayers to pay far more than is fair or reasonable. By repeatedly siding with the utilities they are meant to regulate, the MPSC has shown a disturbing disregard for the struggles of Michigan families, trapping ratepayers in an unsustainable system that prioritizes corporate profits over their well-being.”

Attorney General Nessel Seeks to Slash $436 Million Consumers Energy Electric Hike by Nearly 65%

Attorney General Dana Nessel intervenes in all major rate hike cases before the MPSC to advocate for Michigan’s ratepaying utility customers. Today, she also filed testimony in Consumers Energy’s latest electric rate case before the MPSC, recommending a reduction of 64% to the company’s proposed rate increase – seeking to save ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Consumers Energy filed its request with the MPSC in May seeking to hike rates by $436 million just two months after the MPSC approved a $154 million rate hike in March. The request marks the largest electric rate hike Consumers Energy has proposed during Attorney General Nessel’s time in office and is likely the largest in decades.

In addition to the latest proposed annual rate hike, Consumers Energy is also aiming to recover from their bill-paying customers an additional $24 million in deferred distribution costs through a separate 12-month surcharge. The rate hike alone would increase overall rates by 9.2% and hike household rates by 13.3%. Attorney General Nessel has urged the MPSC to slash the rate hike down to no more than 3.5% overall.

“Time and again, Consumers Energy comes to the MPSC demanding outrageous rate hikes – and time and again, my office intervenes to protect Michigan families,” Nessel said. “After combing through this massive electric rate hike request line by line, we have found nearly two-thirds of it to be overstated, unjustified, and flat-out unfair to its customers. Michigan families are already being squeezed by higher costs at every turn, and they should not be forced to bankroll a for-profit corporation’s excessive demands.”

The Attorney General has saved Michigan consumers nearly $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.

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