A new factsheet reveals Michigan ranks 11th worst for energy affordability in the US — in the top quarter of the country for least affordable energy (gas + electric) bills. As discussed in the previous article, the Energy Equity Project (EEP) is a Michigan-based collaborative that supports frontline organizations across the country advocating for environmental-justice communities, eliminating shutoffs, increasing access to clean energy, and lowering energy burden. Earlier this month, EEP hosted a webinar presenting their findings on overall trends in residential utility rates.
As industrial customers enjoy steady rates that let them build wealth and plan for the future, residential ratepayers continue to face mounting increases in their gas and electric bills. EEP reported a residential rate increase of 44% in Michigan and Ohio from 2010 to 2023 — a 238% increase over that of industrial rates.
There's a direct correlation between rate hikes for residential customers and shutoffs. There have been more than half a million shutoffs in Michigan (321,000) and Ohio (344,000) since 2010. As utility companies tout a need for increased revenue to improve reliability in their rate proposals, unaffordability continues to cut utility access for a growing number of customers.
Temporary shutoff moratoriums during the COVID pandemic restricted shutoffs across seventeen states and required shutoff reporting to protect customers. Just three years after the pandemic, fewer than half of those states continue reporting as shutoffs increase nationwide. That not only leaves customers vulnerable but also creates data gaps for the frontline advocacy organizations that support them. EEP exists to close these gaps while inciting regulatory change that mandates timely, community-specific, transparent reporting. Utilities should be required to provide the data needed to hold them accountable — companies cannot continue to bulldoze customers while using shutoffs to bully the most vulnerable, often disabled, elderly, and impoverished ratepayers.
One in four Michigan families spends far more on energy than the 6% the DOE recommends — nearly one million households.
As DTE proposes a $574 million rate hike for resident ratepayers, Michiganders are already drowning in what feels like a nationwide economic crisis. Industrial prices aren't even rising at half the rate: residential electric rates ($0.19/kWh) have climbed 51% since 2010, while industrial rates ($0.08/kWh) have risen only 15%. EEP's findings also show that 25% of Michigan households carry an unaffordable energy burden.
EEP reports show Michigan's energy-affordability crisis is a gap of more than $14 billion: 998,578 households crushing under a $1.25 billion deficit, while 3,010,663 households float above an excess of $12.90 billion before exceeding the affordability threshold. Cost-sharing across income classes would address this by passing the surplus from affordability-stable households on to those with high energy burdens — raising costs for households that can afford it in order to relieve the quarter of Michigan households suffering with unaffordable bills.
Another strategy EEP recommends is establishing an equitable rate for commercial and industrial sales. Balancing the weight of rates between residential, commercial, and industrial customers would reduce the burden on residents by raising rates for larger ratepayers — naturally lowering residential unaffordability and shutoffs.
EEP's research puts numbers behind the advocacy work that frontline organizations like We Want Green Too do every day. That data is critical in regulatory spaces, where figures on shutoffs, rate increases, and energy-burden calculations carry more influence with regulators than the personal stories of impacted people. But data reporting is becoming less frequent, putting this advocacy in jeopardy. EEP is combatting that by supporting nonprofits, advocacy groups, and regulatory intervenors like WWGT — combining these stories with the data to make the most powerful case for environmental-justice change.
