The Energy and Policy Institute reports that Michigan legislators are failing to keep their transparency pledge to voters.
DTE Energy has given $176,000 to Michigan lawmakers’ campaigns and related funds since a February ice storm caused lengthy power outages, a reoccurring event that stoked widespread backlash from DTE customers. The spending comes as Democrats attempt to pass climate and consumer protection bills, raising questions over whether they will deliver on promises that some have made to rein in the utility.
Michigan’s House and Senate energy committees held a pair of hearings in March where members grilled utility executives and relayed the frustrations of residents whose lives were upended by days-long DTE outages. But despite blasting the outages as “unconscionable” seven months ago, legislators appear to have softened their push for utility accountability – and roughly 100 of them have taken DTE money since then, state campaign finance records show.
Donations from DTE’s political action committee, or PAC, have padded campaign accounts tied to lawmakers and broader party funds. Of the total $176,000 disbursed by the PAC since the March hearings, $94,500 has flowed to Democrats, who have promised to use the legislative control they won in 2022 to take climate action and advance clean energy. The DTE PAC gave $81,500 to Republicans during the same span. State records indicate that only one lawmaker, Rep. Mike McFall, a Democrat, returned DTE PAC money after the February outages touched off public blowback against the utility.
Just days after a Michigan House energy committee hearing where members repeatedly invoked their constituents’ frustrations with outages and poor utility service, DTE’s PAC doled out $22,500 to lawmakers, state records show. More than half of that sum funneled to energy committee members and legislative leaders who have at times frustrated environmental advocates by slow-walking utility accountability and clean energy legislation this year.
Among those who received DTE money was Rep. Helena Scott, who chairs the House energy committee. Scott has taken $3,000 from DTE’s PAC since the February outage crisis while leading a statewide “listening tour” to hear customers’ frustrations with the utility, which have been highly publicized for years.
At the March hearing she oversaw, Scott said that “change needs to come, and we’re going to start doing that in this legislature.” When she announcedthe bipartisan task force in May, she promised “a new day here in Michigan and a new era of accountability” and indicated that legislators would pursue new legislation after the listening sessions. But the task force’s last scheduled public event was August 30, and the legislature has not yet taken meaningful action. Lawmakers are expected to recess sometime in the coming weeks until 2024, and advocates worry legislators will leave Lansing without passing strong climate and utility accountability bills.
This is not the first year in which Michigan legislators have held hearings to investigate persistent outages and calls for utility reforms; they have historically stopped short of passing laws. Bills to force DTE to increase compensation for customers facing lengthy outages have languished, along with measures to blunt DTE’s political influence. Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2021 called for “tangible, immediate action” when another major outage blanketed DTE territory for days. Still, Michigan’s outage rate remains double the national average after decades of inadequate grid maintenance. DTE remains one of the most consistent and influential backers of Michigan lawmakers.
State filings show that six of the nine legislators on the latest outage task force have taken DTE money since March – Democrats Scott, Joey Andrews, Cynthia Neeley, and Amos O’Neal along with Republicans Pat Outman and Pauline Wendzel. Of the 17 lawmakers who serve on the House energy committee, 13 have taken DTE PAC money since the February outages, according to state records. Funds tied to 11 of 14 members on the corresponding Senate committee have taken DTE PAC contributions since then.
Read more at the Energy and Policy Institute.
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