Michigan – Michigan’s latest fight over utility costs is taking shape around a familiar tension: how much more households and small businesses can be asked to pay, and how much scrutiny a major rate request should face before it moves forward.
Attorney General Dana Nessel has now stepped into Consumers Energy’s newest natural gas case with a forceful recommendation, urging state regulators to cut the company’s proposed increase by more than $146 million.
The request before the Michigan Public Service Commission began in December 2025, when Consumers Energy sought a $240 million increase in natural gas rates.
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That filing arrived less than three months after the utility had already won approval for a separate $157.5 million gas rate increase. If the new proposal were granted as filed, residential customers would see bills climb by about 8%, along with a higher monthly service charge.
Nessel’s testimony argues that the request should be pared back dramatically. Her office is asking the MPSC to approve less than half of what Consumers Energy wants, saying the application includes inflated capital spending projections and profit margins that go too far.
The Attorney General is also pushing regulators to reject a higher monthly service charge and to deny the company’s effort to make customers cover revenue losses tied to warmer months and reduced sales through a Revenue Decoupling Mechanism.
“As always, Consumers Energy has stuffed its rate hike request with ridiculous, overstated costs,” said Attorney General Nessel.
“By now, we should all be exhausted by this predictable pattern of greed, and complete disregard for the Michigan utility customer. We already know how this process ends. The MPSC will almost certainly split the difference between our recommendation and Consumers Energy’s rate hike request to appease the utility, but where does that leave families bled for more every year? The MPSC has allowed nearly $800 million in annual revenue increases for Consumers Energy since 2019. The system itself is fundamentally broken. While Michigan families and small businesses struggle to keep the heat on, Consumers Energy stakeholders are making money hand over fist.”
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If regulators adopt all of the Attorney General’s recommendations, the overall proposed 10% increase would fall to roughly 3.5%. Her office says that would spare ratepayers more than $146 million in added costs.
Nessel’s office says it has helped save Michigan consumers more than $4.1 billion through interventions in utility matters before the MPSC.
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Other open cases include DTE’s natural gas request (U-21973), SEMCO Energy Gas Company’s gas request (U-22002), and Upper Peninsula Power Company’s electric request (U-22032). Consumers Energy, which serves about 1.8 million natural gas customers and 1.9 million electric customers in Michigan, is also expected to pursue another electric rate case later this year.