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New data in: Competition holding down rates, MPSC shows

This data was provided by the MPSC to the Senate committee today. Michigan rate increases for every class - residential, commercial and industrial - increased since passage of OUR competition law by less than U.S. regional, restructured, regulated and 10 largest states. Our law works for customers - regardless of what the utilities are saying.

Michigan House Passes HB 5524 - Effectively killing competition and choice

On Thursday, April 17, 2008 the Michigan House of Representatives passed their energy package with a vote of 78-30.

The House energy package includes these bills:

HB 5524: This bill provides the two incumbent utilities (Detroit Edison and Consumers Energy) with the assurance they will retain a major portion of Michigan's electric market, through a limitation on choice electric providers to no more than 10 percent of the overall market.

HB 5525: This bill involves energy efficiency regulations.

HB 5548 and HB 5549: These bills mandate by 2015, at least 10 percent of Michigan's energy must produced by alternative/renewable sources.

HB 5972, HB 5977 and HB 5898: These bill are tax credits in an attempt to generate more investment surrounding the Hemlock Semi-conductor facilty.

This package of bills has now moved to the Senate.

Customer Choice Coalition Mission Statement
The Customer Choice Coalition is a group of associations, businesses and other organizations supporting the ability of customers to choose from many electric providers when purchasing power. Its members include manufacturers and small businesses, building managers and schools, churches and others who support our current electric restructuring system.

Michigan 's electric bills are the highest in the Midwest , and are hurting our state's families, businesses and governments. To help hold down rates, the Customer Choice Coalition supports giving electric customers a choice of many electric providers, just as they have a choice of many telecommunications providers.

Join the Customer Choice Coalition Mailing List!

House bills mean huge residential electric rate hikes, increases for many businesses, Senate Fiscal Agency says - Customer Choice Coalition Press Release
(May 8, 2008)
House-passed electric remonopolization legislation will raise Detroit Edison residential electric rates by 28 percent and Consumers Energy residential rates by 23.2 to 25.2 percent – before even considering the costs of a new electric plant or fuel cost increases – according to an analysis by the Senate Fiscal Agency issued Wednesday.

The legislation passed by the House will take away the rights of virtually all customers to choose alternative electric providers by eliminating competition for 90 percent of the two utilities electric load. Competition has held down electric rates in Michigan since 2000. (full press release)

Wind Association Blows Off Energy Plan
(MIRS, May 6, 2008)
A leading wind energy association blew off the House-passed energy package today, saying the legislation would actually put $2 billion in new investment in wind energy projects at risk.

In letters to Gov. Jennifer GRANHOLM and Senate Energy Policy Committee Chair Bruce PATTERSON (R-Canton), the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) urged the leaders to make a "fresh start" with annual renewable energy requirements much more aggressive than what passed the House two weeks ago (See "House Passes Energy Package," 4/17/08). (full article)
(AWEA letter to Gov. Granholm) (AWEA letter to Sen. Patterson)

Wind Generators Oppose House Energy Package
(Gongwer News Service, May 6, 2008)
The package of bills recently passed the House to increase investment in electric generation in the state, and particularly in renewable power, will not meet that goal, the American Wind Energy Association said in a letter to Governor Jennifer Granholm and Sen. Bruce Patterson (RCanton), whose committee is now considering the legislation.

The bills to implement a renewable portfolio standard and energy efficiency programs (HB 5548and HB 5549) would require the major utilities to use 4 percent renewable power by 2012 and 15 percent by 2015.
(full article)

Tech firm wooed with $357M tax credit
(Detroit News, May 5, 2008)
Michiganians struggling to pay their own electric bills could be stunned to learn they may have to help pick up a multimillion-dollar power tab in a few years for a highly successful silicon manufacturer in the Saginaw Valley.

Hemlock Semiconductor is in line for a state tax credit against its Michigan Business Tax bill for a dozen years starting in 2012, a break that could cost the state's general fund as much as $357 million, according to a Senate Fiscal Agency analysis. The tax-supported general fund, the state's main checkbook, pays for universities, prisons, human services and other state programs and services. (full article)

Eastpointe legislator is energy point man
(Macomb Daily News, May 4, 2008)
In the high-powered political battle in Lansing over electricity rates andfuture energy supplies, Frank Accavitti is the man on the hot seat.

The Democratic state representative from Eastpointe pushed through asweeping legislative package that would increase the rates Michigan homeowners and businesses pay for electric power. The main bill, approved by Accavitti's House committee after 16 months of legislative work, is designed to provide a steady stream of power from the state's utilities for decades to come. (full article)

Time for state to plug in to green energy
(Detroit Free Press, May 4, 2008)
Like it or not, the world's skyrocketing demand for energy -- and the related volatility of energy prices -- is turning our world topsy-turvy.

Michigan is particularly unsettled with its historical economic dependence on production of automobiles highly influenced by the gyrations in the price of fossil fuels.

Indeed, we saw stark evidence last week of a rapid swing in consumer preference from big trucks and SUVs to more fuel-efficient cars, triggering big drops of 12% to 24% in the April sales of the Detroit Three automakers. (full article)

Switch to 'green' energy could hit Michigan hard
(Windsor Star, May 2, 2008)
The energy package now briskly moving through the Michigan legislature sounds like an environmentalist's and consumer's dream. They are being billed as the "green energy bills."

They call on power companies to provide more energy from "renewable" sources, which is bound to make many voters think of Gov. Jennifer Granholm's often expressed desire for wind power. (full article)

Proposed energy bills are unfair to customers
(Detroit News, April 20, 2008)
The Michigan House has adopted legislation that shifts too much of the risk of investing and managing an electrical utility to consumers. That's unfair.

This state's utilities have chafed under Michigan's partial deregulation of the market for electricity. And they have a point. Current law creates a disincentive for the utilities to invest in new power plants because they have no way of predicting their customer base. (full article)

Low-wattage legislation
(Midland Daily News, April 20, 2008)
It’s hard for us to believe that Republicans would go along with a scheme that delivers a barely regulated
monopoly to the state’s two largest utilities, but that is just what Midland County representatives Bill Caul
and John Moolenaar did when they joined 76 other representatives to pass energy legislation that includes
provisions to limit the amount of competition faced by the state’s major electric utilities.

A package of bills now will go before the Senate, where we hope senators can be made to understand that
what Consumers Energy and Detroit Edison are telling them is just so much hooey. (full article)

Your electric bill could go higher
(Detroit Free Press, April, 18, 2008)
Michigan's two largest electric utilities would regain virtual monopoly status and gradually shift $365 million in energy costs from businesses to residential customers, under legislation passed by the state House on Thursday.

The average DTE Energy residential customer would pay less than $100 over five years to cover the shift in costs, according to DTE. (full article)

Mich. House starts passing energy bills
(Associated Press, April 18, 2008)
The state House on Thursday passed most of a wide-ranging package of energy legislation that would affect the price of flipping a light switch, washing clothes and charging an iPod in Michigan.

The bills, which will face opposition in the Senate, would require that power companies sell more green energy, limit the amount of competition facing the state's major electric utilities, and set up programs helping residential and business customers save energy. Customers also would have to pay the actual cost of the electricity they use. (full article)

State House's energy bills would hike rates
(Detroit News, April 18, 2008)
A sweeping energy package that passed the state House on Thursday would have an impact on future electric bills, require that a growing proportion of Michigan's energy come from green sources, limit competition faced by the major utilities and allow them to charge customers in advance for new power plants.

While many bills in the package would result in higher electric rates -- especially for homeowners -- proponents say the legislation would provide Michigan with a reliable source of home-based energy for decades to come. (full article)

Energy bill to boost power-plant plans moves forward
(The Bay City Times, April 17, 2008)
State Rep. Jeff Mayes said today a state House committee has approved an energy bill that "paves the
way to building a power plant in Bay County."

Mayes, D-Bay City, vice chairman of the House Energy and Technology Committee, said the bill and
several others approved late Wednesday by the committee could be voted on by the full House as soon
as today.

"I anticipate movement of those bills. I think it's going to have bipartisan support," Mayes said. (full article)

House Passes Energy Bills
(Gongwer News Service, April 17, 2008)
It might not have been a rolling blackout, but it certainly caught everyone's attention Thursday when the
lights went out on a gaggle of lobbyists outside of the House chambers at the same time lawmakers
were in the middle of voting on a package of bills dealing with energy.

While power in the lobby was restored within minutes, the intensity of lobbying efforts throughout the
day did not cease on legislation that creates a renewable portfolio standard for Michigan, requires compliance with energy efficiency programs and limits how many customers can go to alternative suppliers for their electricity needs. (full artilce)

House Passes Energy Package
(MIRS, April 17, 2008)
Today, as expected, the House passed a multi-bill energy reform package. However, the legislation was
approved as easily as a hot knife cuts through butter — and some might not have expected that.

HB 5524, legislation that would return the state's major utilities, Detroit Edison (DTE) and Consumers
Energy (CMS) to a quasi-monopoly status, passed on a 78-30 tally, with 25 Republicans voting "yes", and
three Democrats voting "no." (full article)

P.A. 141 Reforms Move To the Floor
(MIRS, April 16, 2008)
Late this afternoon the House Energy and Technology Committee voted 16-0-3 to report out an H-3
version of HB 5524, legislation that would return the state's major utilities, Detroit Edison (DTE) and
Consumers Energy (CMS) to a quasi-monopoly status.

The vote was actually quite anti-climatic, as the handwriting has been on the wall in recent days that
enough Republicans would support the bill to call it "bipartisan" — a prerequisite for getting the bill out
of committee and (on Thursday) out of the House, along with the other bills in the package, (HB 5524,
HB 5548, HB 5549, and HB 5972-HB 5977.) (full article)

Bipartisan Support, Concerns Over Electric Restructuring
(Gongwer News Service, April 16, 2008)
Legislation to place some limits on electric customer choice and give utilities the market certainty they said they needed to build new power plants moved with bipartisan support Wednesday from the House Energy and Technology Committee. But the committee vote raised some questions about support for the bill when it comes up for a floor vote on Thursday. And the bill could see less than a warm reception in the Senate. (full article)

Customer Choice Coalition unveils second radio ad against House Bill 5524 -
CCC Press Release
(April 15, 2008)
As the House Energy and Technology Committee prepares to consider House Bill 5524, the Customer Choice Coalition is running radio ads informing voters that the bills will lead to huge electric rate hikes and job losses due to those electric rate hikes.

“The Customer Choice Coalition has taken the lead in providing factual information to lawmakers and citizens about this massive and unnecessary electric rate hike bill,” said Barry Cargill. “We are proud to be running this week on statewide radio another spot that lets Michigan know the House is ready to impose a $2 billion tax increase on Michigan by remonopolizing the state’s electric system and taking away their right to choose.” (full press release)

Customer Choice Hits Airwaves Second Time
(MIRS, April 15, 2008)
The sparks continue to fly over the so called energy package (HB 5524, HB 5525, HB 5548 and HB 5549).
Today, the Customer Choice Coalition (CCC) announced a second radio ad campaign it hopes would
inform voters that "the bills would lead to huge electric rate hikes and job losses."

"The Customer Choice Coalition has taken the lead in providing factual information to lawmakers and
citizens about this massive and unnecessary electric rate hike bill," said Barry Cargill. "We are proud to
be running this week on statewide radio another spot that lets Michigan know the House is ready to
impose a $2 billion tax increase on Michigan by remonopolizing the state's electric system and taking
away their right to choose." (full article)

Hemlock Semiconductor Tax Break Tacked Onto House Energy Package
(Gongwer News Service, April 14, 2008)
As the House Energy and Technology Committee prepares on Wednesday to take up its rewrite to electric
choice, commonly referred to as PA 141, a package of bills granting Michigan Business Tax credits to Hemlock Semiconductor Corporation based on how much energy the company uses have been tie-barred to it.

In order to receive the tax credits starting in 2012 and running through 2024, the maker of polysilicon crystalline would have to enter into an agreement with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation saying it will construct or operate a new or expanded facility in the state. (full article)

Electric Reform Could Move to Senate This Week
(Gongwer News Service, April 14, 2008)
Legislation that would cap electric choice at 10 percent of the loads of the two largest utilities and would allow them to build the interest charges on a new power plant into the rate base if they can show the need for it could find itself in the Senate by the end of the week.

Rep. Frank Accavitti (D-Eastpointe), chair of the House Energy and Technology Committee, said he expects
the entire package - reforms to PA 141, energy efficiency and the renewable portfolio standard - to move out of the House on Thursday. (full article)

Six Burning Questions On P.A. 141
(MIRS, April 11, 2008)
The House leadership's plans to bake limits on the state's electric choice law into new alternative energy
mandates and energy efficiency programs have sparked significant debate over Michigan's energy policy
in recent months.

House Speaker Andy DILLON (D-Redford Twp.) has made the issue his top priority of 2008, and it's
shown. His shop has coordinated several meetings, hearings and workshops on the issue over the last
several weeks. (full article)

Utilities spend money to influence rewrite of electricity law
(Associated Press, April 6, 2008)
Utilities that want a rewrite of Michigan's 8-year-old electricity law are outspending their opponents when it comes to lobbying lawmakers and giving to their campaigns.

Detroit Edison and Jackson-based Consumers Energy, which together distribute power to nearly 90 percent
of the state's electric customers, spent at least $525,600 last year lobbying the Legislature and Gov.
Jennifer Granholm's administration — three times what competitors spent. (full article)

Consumers CEO Makes Case For Energy Bills
(MIRS, April 4, 2008)
The head of CMS Energy told MIRS today that he's found "frustrating" the quantity of "misinformation"
floating around Lansing about the pending House energy reform legislation.

David JOOS said, no, the bills House Speaker Andy DILLON (D-Redford Twp.), Rep. Frank ACCAVITTI (D- Eastpointe) and Rep. Mike NOFS (R-Battle Creek) are working on doesn't allow the state's two major
utilities to pass along to residents any and all power plant construction cost overruns. The Michigan
Public Service Commission (MPSC) still must sign off. (full article)

Electric utilities fight to keep turf
(Detroit News, April 4, 2008)
More than $1 million has been spent on lobbying and campaign donations in the high-stakes battle over an energy package that will impact every Michiganian who flips on a light switch.

Most of the spending is by DTE Energy and Consumers Energy -- the two major utilities looking to protect and expand their turf by scaling back an 8-year-old law that opened Michigan's electricity market to competition. (full article)

It's a Matter of Choice
(Oakland Press, March 30, 2008)
Sharp debate over energy policy in Michigan is likely in the coming weeks and months.

The stakes are high, revolving around levels of electric utility competition, customer choice, electric rates, long-term supply and alternative energy sources.

Proponents say that three measures pending in the state House of Represent-atives will provide the stability that the major utilities need in order to build new generating plants while still exploring so-called renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. (full article)

Gathering Redefines 'Work Group'
(MIRS, March 25, 2008)
The hottest ticket in downtown Lansing this morning was the House Energy and Technology work group,
which met in the Mackinac Room on the 5th floor of the House Office Building.

A very large crowd filled the large room, which stretched the definition of "work group."

"This is not our normal work group," Committee Chair Frank ACCAVITTI, Jr. (D-Eastpointe) explained to
one out-of-town attendee. Accavitti and others repeatedly caught themselves using the words "testify"
only to correct the phrase with "I mean comment." (full article)

Workgroup Mulls Amendments to Energy Package
(Gongwer News Service, March 25, 2008)
The Mackinac Room in the House Office Building was crammed Tuesday for a workgroup session on an energy package including largely re-regulating the electric industry and mandating energy efficiency and a renewable portfolio standard. But while officials from energy groups, businesses, chambers of commerce, unions, alternative energy suppliers and the Granholm administration voiced the changes they would make to each of the bills in the package, there was still no consensus on possible amendments reached when the seven-hour meeting concluded.

House Energy and Technology Committee Chair Rep. Frank Accavitti (D-Eastpointe) said another workgroup meeting scheduled for Thursday would be canceled and that amendments proposed during Tuesday's gatherings would be reviewed and incorporated into the latest drafts for HB 5548 , HB 5549 , HB 5524 and HB 5525 . (full article)

Unbundle The Energy Legislation
(Grand Rapids Business Journal, March 24, 2008)
A reader recently remarked to Business Journal staff that Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration has been more damaging to the state of Michigan than the painful auto-related economic evolution.

There is once again proof that politics, not solid public policy, rule in Lansing. Democrats in the Michigan House of Representatives have very deliberately knotted together the necessary and popular package of bills to set renewable Portfolio Standards with repeal of the Electric Choice and Reliability Act passed in 2000. House Speaker Pro-Tempore Michael Sak, R-Grand Rapids, who certainly is in the position to guide legislative efforts, told the Business Journal last week there is "not likely much we can do" to free the RPS package from the debacle of gutting utility deregulation. The remark is unforgettable and unforgivable.
(full article)

Energy Legislation Debated
(Grand Rapids Business Journal, March 24, 2008)
Many Michigan commercial and industrial electrical energy customers, along with some nonprofit organizations, are gearing up to battle a package of proposed legislation in Lansing. That package includes the Renewable Portfolio Standard — not because business opposes "green" electricity but because another part of the package would repeal PA 141: the Electric Choice and Reliability Act passed in 2000.

The Renewable Portfolio Standard would require 10 percent of the state's energy supply to come from renewable sources by 2015. Twenty-five other states have already passed similar legislation.

The so-called “Customer Choice” law passed in 2000 deregulated the sale of electricity in Michigan, allowing customers the option of buying their electricity from an alternative generating company, even if their electrical service is provided by Consumers Energy or DTE. (full article)

Electricity use debate slows new state laws
(Associated Press, March 22, 2008)
A popular argument for rewriting Michigan's energy laws this year is that more electricity will be needed by 2015 -- not a lot of time for new power plants to be built.

But predicting energy usage is tricky.

Big utilities and others have tried to bolster their case for legislative changes by citing a January 2007 report from then-Michigan Public Service Commission Chairman J. Peter Lark. (full article)

Consumer Choice Poll Finds Support For Energy Deregulation
(MIRS, March 18, 2008)
A poll commissioned by the Consumer Choice Coalition, which opposes House plans to revamp Michigan's hybrid utility system, shows 75 percent of Michigan voters say electric customers should have the right to buy power from competing electric providers.

The poll conducted by Marketing Resource Group said 64 percent are less likely to vote for lawmakers who have "taken away their right to choose an electric supplier and forced them to use a monopoly electric company."

The survey shows voters strongly oppose House Bill 5524 pending in the House Energy and Technology Committee, which would alter Public Act 141 that partially deregulated utilities. The poll of 600 voters conducted March 10-16, has a margin of error of 4.9 percent. (full article)

Electric Bills to See More Work
(Gongwer News Service, March 18, 2008)
A package of bills to again restructure the state's electric market and to require that utilities use renewable energy was supposed to move to the House floor Wednesday. But House Energy and Technology Committee Chair Rep. Frank Accavitti (D-Eastpointe) cancelled the meeting Tuesday to allow for additional negotiations.

Mr. Accavitti told Gongwer News Service that workgroups had been working on pieces of the package over the past several months, but various parties had been arguing recently that they could accept provisions in pieces in one workgroup if they could get changes to pieces in another. (full article)

P.A. 141 Repeal Staying Put
(MIRS, March 18, 2008)
Sources tell MIRS that HB 4562, legislation that would repeal Michigan customer choice legislation that provides for competition in the energy market, is a no-go this week.

By no means would the bill have been guaranteed traction in the Senate anyway, but there had been some talk of moving it out of the House Energy and Tech Committee and even passing it on the House floor before the spring break, which starts next week. The committee cancelled its meeting for Wednesday.

Apparently, there is some new angle on the problematic bill that House leadership wants to explore before starting to move the legislation.

Survey shows Michigan voters oppose remonopolizing electricity
Voters likely to oppose lawmakers who take away electric choice - CCC Press Release
(March 18, 2008)
Three out of four Michigan voters say electric customers should have the right to buy power from competing electric providers, and 64 percent are less likely to vote for lawmakers who support remonopolizing the state’s electric system, according to a new Marketing Resource Group survey conducted for the Customer Choice Coalition. (full release)

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