Some progressive Democrats in the Michigan Legislature hope to curb the political spending power of utilities making sizable political donations in the state, although lawmakers acknowledged Wednesday getting such legislation through Lansing is an uphill task.
Lawmakers and organizers with the “Taking Back Our Power” coalition held a news conference Wednesday announcing that bills would soon be introduced in the Senate banning electric and natural gas utilities from making contributions to political candidates, as well as the committees and nonprofits tied to those candidates. Similar bills were introduced in the House earlier this year.
Supporters of the plan say two of Michigan’s largest utilities — Detroit-based DTE Energy and Jackson-based Consumers Energy — have an outsized influence on politics and legislation in the state, largely due to the thousands of dollars in contributions both companies make annually to elected officials.
State Rep. Dylan Wegela, D-Garden City, introduced House Bills 5520 and 5521 in February, which would ban utilities from making contributions to candidates and parties, as well as candidate-affiliated nonprofits and political action committees (PACs).
In addition to banning contributions to candidates and candidate committees, the bills also would ban the utilities from making contributions to other nonprofits tied to politicians, including ones where an elected official, candidate or party official sits on the board.
Both DTE and Consumers have been under fire from lawmakers, particularly since winter storms in February 2023 knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of Michiganders for consecutive days. After the storms, lawmakers held hearings where executives from both utilities testified about plans to strengthen electric grids, but also acknowledged that severe storms are becoming more common in Michigan due to climate change, and will result in more outages as they continue.
DTE and Consumers both have affiliated PACs that contribute tens of thousands of dollars to campaigns and other PACs, at the state and federal levels, each quarter.
Sen. Rosemary Bayer, D-Keego Harbor, criticized the reliability and costs of electricity in Michigan, saying utilities have been turning profits without improving service.The companies have ranked among the worst-performing utilities nationally when it comes to how long it takes them to restore power after an outage, according to a 2023 review of reliability data.
“Money in politics, in general, is strangling our country,” Bayer said. “The outsized influence of corporations on government decision-making is largely responsible for the ever-increasing income gap between those of you who have everything, and the rest of us who are struggling to pay our bills.”
Both DTE and Consumers say they are investing heavily in improving electric service, including by trimming trees, burying power lines and replacing outdated components of the electric grid in their service areas.The two utilities are regulated by the Michigan Public Service Commission, a three-member panel tasked with ensuring utilities deliver safe and reliable service at reasonable costs. A Free Press investigation found both DTE and Consumers enjoy a close relationship with the MPSC.
The utilities defended their political engagement policies in statements provided to the Free Press.
"DTE is affected each day by the decisions of federal, state and local officials. Because of this,we have an obligationto our customers and employees to support candidates for public office that help us meet our purpose of providing safe, reliable, affordable and clean energy for the three million-plus residents and businesses we serve every day," DTE spokesperson Ryan Lowry said.
Katie Carey, a Consumers spokesperson, said the company's political contributions either come from shareholder profits or voluntary contributions made by employees to the company's PAC, not from revenue generated by customers. She also referenced a 2023 index of corporate political disclosure and accountability compiled by the Center for Public Accountability that graded Consumers among the highest corporations for transparency in political activity.
"We’re a Michigan company, and we're all in on Michigan's prosperity," Carey said."We, alongside many other stakeholders, engage in advocacy through regular, constructive, and transparent interactions with government officials, policymakers, and stakeholder groups."
While lawmakers have placed greater scrutiny on utilities in Michigan following the prolonged outages, the House bills banning political contributions from those utilities haven’t received any hearings since their introduction. The bills were referred to the House Committee on Government Operations, a landing spot for bills that seldom receive hearings or advance to the full floor for a vote.
Backers conceded Wednesday it’s unlikely the proposal garners support to advance through the House and Senate, where Democrats hold narrow majorities in each chamber. Lawmakers in both the Senate and House, from both parties, have received political contributions from political action committees operated by Michigan’s two largest utility companies, campaign finance records show.
Still, supporters of the proposal say it’s imperative to maintain pressure on legislators to push bills through, or at least to, the lawmaking process.
“We need not only the leadership of both chambers, but we need the people to realize that they really have true power and that they can force us to do whatever they want us to do,” said Rep. Donavan McKinney, D-Detroit.
The most recent quarterly campaign finance filings available show both DTE- and Consumers-backed PACs making tens of thousands of dollars' worth of contributions to candidates, committees, and caucus funds for bothDemocratic and Republican causes in Michigan in the first months of 2024.
DTE Energy PAC reported making thousands of dollars' worth of contributions to lawmakers, as well as caucus campaign arms, in Michigan during the first quarter of 2024. Its quarterly report indicates $10,000 contributions were made to thecampaign committees for both House Democrats and House Republicans.
Consumers’ PAC, CMS Energy Corp. Employees for Better Government, also reported making thousands of dollars’ worth of contributions in the first quarter of 2024. Its April quarterly statement detailed $5,000 in contributions to both the Senate Democratic fund and the House Democratic fund, as well as $5,000 to the House Republicans’ campaign arm.
In addition to contributions to caucus funds, both utilities' PACs contributed to leadership PACs affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, and Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township. Both PACs also made dozens of contributions directly to the campaigns of lawmakers, from both parties, the most recent filings show.
Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, said prohibiting political contributions from electric and natural gas utilities would be similar to how Michigan law limits how casino owners, operators and suppliers can make political contributions.
“The public wrapped their head around that at the very beginning of casinos in Michigan and said we need to make sure that the influence of this particular industry — that has such a punctuated interest in their monopoly — we need to make sure that they aren’t here in Lansing investing and trying to get over the public through the political process,” Irwin said. “And those laws have been in place,working well, for years. We want to apply the same types of structures to these other regulated monopolies.”
ContactArpan Lobo:[email protected]. Follow him on X (Twitter)@arpanlobo.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Proposal calls for banning political spending by DTE, Consumers Energy
