December 2024: Thanks to Sierra Club's intervention, Michigan is taking a major step towards ending its reliance on fossil gas. The Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC) rejected many attempts by DTE Gas, Michigan's largest gas utility, to fund gas system expansion on ratepayers’ dimes.
Sierra Club Environmental Law Program attorneys intervened to protect Michigan ratepayers from costly gas infrastructure upgrades and to put Michigan on a path towards electrification. Through testimony, Sierra Club and partners demonstrated that DTE Gas' nearly $300 million rate increase was unreasonable in light of building electrification, which promises to reduce gas demand. The Michigan PSC found this advocacy convincing and sided with Sierra Club in putting major checks on DTE Gas' ability to expand its gas infrastructure with ratepayer funding, rejecting $152 million in rate increases.
Sierra Club’s experts also made the case that the PSC and gas utilities should be planning for that reduced demand by reducing the footprint of gas infrastructure. The PSC acknowledged the impending energy transition and its environmental justice and economic implications. To ensure that the energy transition is addressed, the PSC adopted Sierra Club's recommendations that DTE Gas filings to the PSC include emissions reduction compliance plans, alternatives to pipeline replacement such as electrification, more robust gas demand projections, and projected impacts of electrification and decarbonization by the end of 2025.