In 2022, Michigan’s largest utility, DTE, donated to 138 of Michigan’s 148 legislators. Sean McBrearty says that's too much.
McBrearty is with Michiganders for Money Out of Politics, the group behind a ballot initiative that would ban Michigan utilities and contractors from donating to the politicians that regulate them.
He said these donations give politicians an incentive to kill legislation utilities don’t like, including some that would help renewables take off in Michigan.
“Take an issue like community solar. There's been strong bipartisan support for that in Lansing for a long time. It doesn't get passed because DTE and Consumers don't want it.”
DTE describes itself as the state's "renewable energy leader," and Consumers touts renewable-energy projects including its Solar Gardens program, which customers can buy into.
But both utilities have fought proposals that would make it easier for third parties to generate electricity, sometimes making dubious claims about them. Critics say the power companies' motivation is more about hanging onto their share of the market than protecting ratepayers.
Denise Keele, executive director of the Michigan Climate Action Network, said utilities have convinced lawmakers to vote against bills that could help make Michigan's grid more reliable.
“When we add renewables to the grid, it stabilizes, makes it more reliable. This is very contrary to some of the mis- and disinformation that's out there, that oil and gas are the only sort of stable sources.”
The reliability of Michigan's grid has been a hot topic among residents. One nonprofit group released a report in December ranking Michigan's grid as the worst in the Midwest when it came to the duration of outages per customer.
In the same report, Iowa was ranked 4th in the nation for the duration of outages, not including the District of Columbia.
"Our grid is about 85% fossil fuels, and we are 43rd in the nation for reliability. You look at other states like Iowa, Texas, not bastions of climate action, but their grids, Iowa's grid is nearly, last time I looked it was 66% renewables," Keele said.
According to U.S. Energy Information Administration, as of August 21, just over 68% of Iowa's grid is supplied by renewables.
Michiganders for Money Out of Politics will need to collect over 350,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot, which it hopes to get in front of voters in 2026.
Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.
