Michigan House energy chair says new public service commission policy would violate law
Associate Speaker Pro Tem and House Energy Policy Chairman Rep. Gary Glenn (R-District 98) said last week that a policy the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) plans to adopt next month would violate state and federal law and increase electricity rates.
Glenn said in a recent document that MPSC staff, according to commissioners’ instructions, a recently proposed policy that would require electricity choice providers to demonstrate they can meet customer demand with only electricity that’s generated in Michigan. The policy scheduled to be adopted on
September 28.
“This is clearly a back door attempt by unelected bureaucrats to eliminate Michigan’s Electricity Choice program by bureaucratic regulation, a protectionist scheme that was pushed by the state’s two monopoly utilities in the last legislative session but was expressly rejected by the people’s elected representatives,” Glenn said.
The policy would cost schools take tens of millions of dollars each year, Glenn said, and make Michigan less competitive for new business, industry and jobs.
Glenn, as well as House Majority Whip Reps. Rob Verheulen (R-District 74) and Chris Afendoulis (R-District 73), expressed concerns that the move would violate a recent compromise energy package signed into law in December.
“We have strong concerns that the imposition by the Commission of any requirements on AESs in excess of those MISO requires…violates the legislative intent of (the new state energy law) and will place a significant additional burden on schools and businesses in our districts and all across Michigan,” Verheulen and Afendoulis wrote. “It will also threaten the sustainability of the (Electricity Choice) program, the viability and continuation of which was a primary goal of the legislation.”
