**Breaking News**

The Michigan Senate Committee on Energy Policy and Public Utilities has passed House Bill 5524 to the Senate floor for a full vote. NOW is the time to let your senator know you do not support House Bill 5524. Tell your lawmakers today you cannot afford higher electric rates and Michigan cannot afford to lose more jobs.

Click here to write your senator now.

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Residential Energy Rates Will Climb by 30 percent
According to a recent study by the Senate Fiscal Agency, if the House energy package is passed,
Detroit Edison's residential customers will see, in combination with pending cases,
rates increase by 28-percent and Consumers' by 23-25 percent.

To read the full report, click here.

Mackinac Center Study Finds:
Proposals to Suppress Competition in Michigan's Electricity Market and
Mandate “Renewable Energy” Use Would Raise Prices Without
Improving Service or Environment (study)

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!

It's lights out for smarter energy policy in state Senate
(Detroit Free Press, July 1, 2008)
Hold on to your light switches. The state Senate, in the late hours of Friday night, passed about the worst possible combination of utility bills imaginable.

First, the Senate stripped virtually all meaning out of a bill calling for a minimum amount of renewable energy and a program to promote energy efficiency. Then senators passed a bill reregulating the state's utilities, allowing their competition never to exceed 10% of the market. (full article)

Energy Bills Jolt Senate
(Gongwer News Service, June 28, 2008)
Energy regulation legislation sparked and temporarily shorted out, but then was regenerated and passed during a late night session in the Senate on Friday.

Just before midnight the main bill in the package, HB 5524*, passed on a 21-14 voted. Less than an hour earlier it had failed on a 13-13 vote as most Senate Democrats refused to participate in the vote.

But in the final vote, nine Democrats joined with 12 Republicans to secure its passage.

The chamber barely passed a bill, SB 213*, calling for a 7 percent renewal portfolio standard by 2015, but Democrats said the measure will actually result in less electricity created by renewable methods because the 7 percent standard includes energy conservation and will only require that 4 percent of electricity is generated by renewable sources, less than the 5 percent standard now in place. (full article)

Senate Zaps RPS Down To 7%
(MIRS, June 27, 2008)
Michigan would need to get 7 percent of its energy from environmentally friendly sources by 2015
under a Senate energy reform package pushed out of the upper chamber 20-17 late tonight by a unified
Republican caucus.

The change not only knocks down the 10 percent renewable portfolio standard (RPS) passed by the
House and supported by the Governor, but allows out-of-state alternative energy, "clean coal" and
energy efficiencies to be counted in the goal to the protest of the minority Democrats. (full article)

Energy Debate Dominates Senate GOP Caucus
(MIRS, June 25, 2008)
"Energy" was the watchword of the day in hours of Senate Republican caucuses. Though budgets were
on senators' minds, the energy package dominated the closed-door meetings as the chamber mulls
action before summer break.

Energy company lobbyists from both the incumbents and the competitive suppliers were turning up the
heat on legislators in an already muggy building today. Sources also tell MIRS Gov. Jennifer GRANHOLM
also has been engaged on the issue, as well. (full article)

Derek Melot: Electric claim is silly policy
(Lansing State Journal, June 2008)
If power must be home-grown, what of food?

Quick survey: What's the point of origin of the shirt on your back?

Where was your car assembled and the components made?

That bell pepper in the crisper and flank steak in the freezer ... know where they came from?

Odds are, unless your car was assembled nearby, none of the items was made or grown in
Michigan.

So why is the Legislature supposed to be worried about the source of electricity?

Michigan's big utilities - Consumers Energy and DTE - are behind a vigorous ad campaign designed to rewrite state utility law. Under the guise of the "Michigan Jobs and Energy Coalition," the utilities want to convince you they are all about renewable power - and are mighty afraid of having to buy juice from their fellow Americans or shady Canadians. (full article)

Theodore Bolema: Utilities' plan would fatten their wallets
(Lansing State Journal, June 15, 2008)
The Michigan Senate is considering a package of bills to largely end the state's six years of limited competition in the supply of electricity. While the bills' stated goals may be laudable, the current policy debate is being driven largely by special interests, not consumer interests.

DTE Energy and Consumers Energy, Michigan's two largest utilities, are trying to regain much of their state-sanctioned monopoly status by claiming these bills would lower electricity costs, promote investment in new power plants and create jobs. (full article)

Senate committee approves energy bills backed by utilities
(Crain's Detroit Business, June 12, 2008)
A state Senate committee on Thursday approved energy legislation that, among other things, sets new requirements for use of renewable energy and restricts electricity customers’ ability to choose alternate
suppliers.

The bills approved by the Senate Energy Policy and Public Utilities Committee now go to the full Senate.

Hailing the Thursday action was the Michigan Jobs and Energy Coalition, which supported the House-passed package and said it would provide affordable electricity and a structure to encourage development of new plants. (full article)

Patterson Moves House Energy Bills
(MIRS, June 12, 2008)
After a Senate panel today unexpectedly kicked out the House energy bills - including Public Act 141
reform - one stunned audience member declared, "I'm buying Consumers stock."

Energy Policy Committee Chair Bruce PATTERSON (R-Canton) this afternoon moved Renewable Portfolio
Standards (RPS) reforms (HB 5548 and HB 5549) and controversial HB 5524, which turns Michigan's
electric industry into more of a regulated market, which Consumers Energy and DTE have pushed.
(full article)

Senate Panel Approves Most Of Electric Restructuring
(Gongwer News Service, June 12, 2008)
Three of the four bills in the House energy package moved one step, at least procedurally, closer to the
governor's desk Thursday. But it was still not clear after the Senate Energy Policy and Public Utilities
Committee's action what the bills might look like as they move back to the House, or when the full
Senate may approve the package.

Those supporting the package that would give greater market power to the state's major utilities praised
the committee's action, but those seeking more customer choice in the market were "dumbfounded" by
the move. (full article)

Patterson: Progress Is Being Made On Energy Bills
(Gongwer News Service, June 10, 2008)
While little legislation overhauling Michigan's utility and energy regulatory system has moved so far from the Senate Energy Policy and Public Utilities Committee, its chair, Sen. Bruce Patterson (R-Canton), said committee members are working towards resolution of the issues.

But that does not necessarily mean there will be a "straight line to an outcome," Mr. Patterson said, a point he said he had also made to House Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Twp.). (full article)

Former P.S.C. Commissioners Raise Worries About House Energy Bills
(Gongwer News Service, June 5, 2008)
A House-passed package of bills that would substantially restructure energy generation and utility regulation in the state would seriously impede the ability of the Public Service Commission to protect consumers and lead to higher consumer costs, a group of former PSC members said in a letter to the Legislature.

Seven former members of the commission, representing commissioners appointed by former Governors William Milliken, James Blanchard and John Engler, signed the letter that outlined five areas of concern about HB 5524, HB 5525, HB 5548 and HB 5549. (full article)

Energy Advocates Spar Again
(MIRS, June 5, 2008)
As the Senate Energy Policy Committee weighs the House Renewable Portfolio (RPS) chunk of the
energy package, seven former members of the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) today came
out swinging against various parts of the plan.

"The Legislation coming over from the House handcuffs the Public Service Commission, overturns 100
years of decisions and forces customers to pay more," said former MPSC Chair Eric SCHNEIDEWIND,
who has long opposed House versions. (full article)

Former Michigan Public Service Commissioners oppose major sections of energy remonopolization bills - CCC Press Release
(June 5, 2008)
Seven former members of the Michigan Public Service Commission, including Democrats, Republicans and Independents who served from the 1970s to 2007, have announced their opposition to major parts of the energy package now before the Senate.

“We believe these bills have serious flaws and would create unnecessarily high rates for Michigan ratepayers without providing for proper levels of electric development in our state,” said the seven commissioners, including three former chairs of the commission and those appointed as Democrats, Republicans and Independents. (full release) (Former Commissioner Letter)

Utilities shouldn't have a monopoly
(Crain's Detroit Business, June 2, 2008)
Lansing lawmakers face a critical decision: Should Michigan restore the monopoly that the state's dominant energy companies— Consumers Energy and Detroit Edison Co. — had before
customer-choice reform in 2000?

Consumers and Edison argue that they cannot make investments in new power-generating plants without some type of guarantee that their investment will be paid for through a strong customer base. Customer choice removes that guarantee. They want lawmakers to guarantee 90 percent of the market will be divided between them.
The two companies have contributed nearly all of the $1.9 million spent so far on advertising in support of their plan by the Michigan Jobs and Energy Coalition. (full article)

Michigan may raise residents' electric bills to help businesses
(Associated Press, June 2, 2008)
State lawmakers plan to raise residential electric bills by as much as 15 percent so businesses and schools can pay less.

Prices historically have been "skewed" by state regulators so residents pay less than the actual cost of electricity, while businesses pay more.

Legislators acknowledge residential customers would experience some sticker shock, but many no longer want to force business customers to subsidize residential rates, in part because they think Michigan's business rates -- which traditionally run higher than surrounding states -- discourage companies from locating here. (full article)

Alternative-energy plans moving from ‘if’ to ‘when’
(Crain's Detroit Business, June 2, 2008)
Forces are converging to advance Michigan’s alternative-energy industry.

The question is: How far and how fast it will happen?

Michigan’s two leading energy companies continued to press their cases at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference with executives sporting “Juice for Jobs” pins from a coalition pushing for prompt approval of a comprehensive package of energy legislation pending in the state Senate. (full article)

Electricity Choice Law Bills Aired
(Grand Rapids Business Journal, May 26, 2008)
A brief “seminar” was scheduled last week at Grand Valley State University by opponents of the proposed legislation that would scale back Michigan's "choice" law that enables residents and businesses to choose the source of electricity they get from regulated utilities.

"We are very concerned about the bills that passed the House and are hoping we can make some substantial changes on the Senate side," said Mary Dechow, director of Government and Regulatory Affairs for Spartan Stores. (full article)

Electricity Choice Law Bills Aired
(Grand Rapids Business Journal, May 26, 2008)
A brief “seminar” was scheduled last week at Grand Valley State University by opponents of the proposed legislation that would scale back Michigan's "choice" law that enables residents and businesses to choose the source of electricity they get from regulated utilities.

"We are very concerned about the bills that passed the House and are hoping we can make some substantial changes on the Senate side," said Mary Dechow, director of Government and Regulatory Affairs for Spartan Stores. (full article)

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