Michigan’s High Electricity Rates
How high are Michigan’s electric rates, pretty high.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration and reported by the Detroit News, as of last March Michigan had the 13th most expensive residential electricity rate at 15.55 cents per kilowatt hour.
I did not know that our electricity rates were that high.
This ranking was reported due to the fact that President Trump had written a memo earlier this month ordering the U.S. Energy Department to stop the shutdown of nuclear and coal power plants. The President did this to fulfill another campaign promise. Whether you think the President was right or wrong in this order you certainly can say unlike other politicians he is actually doing what he said he would do on the campaign trial.
According to the Detroit News report the members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates electricity sales and transmission, testified last week before Congress that there is no energy emergency to justify the federal action.
Apparently Michigan utility companies agreed, saying coal is expensive and that they can provide reliable electricity from cheaper and greener sources such as natural gas, solar and wind. Jim MacInnes, chair of Michigan’s Utility Consumer Participation Board, which is a five-member group appointed by the governor of Michigan to provide grants to organizations representing the interests of residential energy utility customers was quoted in the article stating:
If they’re going to buy more expensive power, that comes out of ratepayers’ pockets…System operators are telling us we have more than adequate capacity. Michigan already has the highest electricity rates in the Midwest. Why would we want to make them higher?
What I have found interesting is in all the reporting I have been doing over the years I never once remember the Michigan’s Utility Consumer Participation Board or anyone in the industry stating the coal is expensive. In fact I have always heard the opposite during all of the closing of coal plants around the state.
Could it be that these Michigan power companies and others around the country are concerned about their funding streams for greener electricity? These companies were forced to start spending a lot of money during the Obama Administration to start to go down the path of more expensive “greener” energy sources and now they might be concerned that their funding for these expenditures might be drying up a bit.
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