Michigan’s governor replaces clean energy advocate on utilities board with ‘industry ally’ | Michigan | The Guardian

Each MPSC board vote is important because the commission is made up of three gubernatorial appointees, and Whitmer's decision amid a debate over rate increases could slow the state's ambitious clean energy transition and lead to higher energy bills, opponents warn. 

The decision marks the latest in a series of environmental controversies for Whitmer, a Democrat whose name has been discussed as a potential leading candidate for the party's nominee for president in 2028, but now faces increasing scrutiny over her record...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/03/gretchen-whitmer-utilities-board-clean-energy

 

Michigan utility aided sabotage of Covid lockdown policies, documents reveal

The "revelatory" emails illuminate how DTE "deploys dark money in Michigan", said Karlee Weinmann, research and communications manager with the utility industry watchdog Energy and Policy Institute. The group detailed the emails in a new report... 

The donations show DTE "has power and wields influence over parts of people's lives that they don't want DTE to have influence over", said Eli Day, communications director for the We the People Action Fund, which has been involved in utility affordability campaigns.  

Donations like this are made through dark money channels because companies know their political donations would generate blowback, Day added. 

"Ordinary people who are outraged can have a real impact and change their lives for the better, and DTE is terrified of that," he said…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/07/michigan-covid-lockdown-dte-energy

 

Group aiming to sabotage Whitmer’s Covid policies funded by dark money

The revelation of DTE's involvement underscores the need to rein in the monopoly utility's political spending, Reyes said. 

"It's hard to see DTE's dark money contributions as anything but toxic to democracy," he added...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/10/gretchen-whitmer-michigan-covid-policies-dark-money

DTE Energy Seeks Rate Hike While Disconnecting More Customers for Nonpayment — ProPublica

The report recommends that creditors should have to provide proof of the amount of the debt owed and how the debt came into their possession…

https://www.propublica.org/article/dte-energy-michigan-rate-hike-disconnection-nonpayment

‘Utility redlining’: Detroit power outages disproportionally hit minority and low-income areas

DTE has generally disinvested in low-income and minority neighborhoods, and spends more resources on improving service in whiter, wealthier areas... So far, the company and its shareholders largely have not faced financial consequences, Koeppel said. 

 "If there's no connection between performance and profits, then DTE is going to keep making profits without improving performance," he said…

https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2022/oct/06/detroit-power-outages-impact-minority-low-income-neighborhoods

Detroit City Council Calls on Michigan’s Largest Utility to Pause Shut-offs, Explain Its High Electricity Rates — ProPublica

…DTE's residential rate, measured as the cost of electricity per kilowatt-hour, is the second highest among investor-owned utilities in Michigan, behind the Upper Peninsula Power Company, a utility with only about 50,000 customers in the northern part of the state. It is also higher than the price charged by the largest utility in each of the other Great Lakes states of Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin…

https://www.propublica.org/article/detroit-city-council-calls-on-michigans-largest-utility-to-pause-shut-offs-explain-its-high-electricity-rates