What do energy prices have to do with health?

I'm so glad you asked.

Exhibit A, an excerpt from today's MedPage Today:

Public health officials and physicians are preparing for another deadly hot summer in Phoenix, where 645 people died of heat-related illness last year. (Washington Post)

EMTs are even deploying body-sized ice "immersion bags" for those in need of rapid cooling. (New York Times)

Unaffordable electricity or shortages = inadequate AC => people die.

It's pretty simple, really.

At least, until you factor in the political gains from high-priced electricity.

That's Exhibit B: in Michigan, where over 80% of homeowners have no choice of electricity provider, the AG is flexing her powers to protect us all.

(Full disclosure: like most West MI residents, I have Consumer's Energy. No choice.)

https://michiganadvance.com/2024/06/07/attorney-general-intervenes-on-consumers-energy-case-requesting-303m-rate-increase/

Attorney general intervenes on Consumers Energy case requesting $303M rate increase

BY: KYLE DAVIDSON - JUNE 7, 2024 5:26 PM

 

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a notice of intervention earlier this week in Consumers Energy’s latest electrical rate case, requesting a $303 million annual rate increase.

If approved, the increase would raise electricity rates by 6.5% beginning in March 2025. The company is also seeking to recover $21.8 million in deferred distribution expenditures by charging customers a separate 12-month surcharge scheduled to begin in March 2025. If the rate increase and the surcharge are approved, rates would increase by 7% from March 2025 through February 2026. 

Nessel’s office intervenes on all rate cases with its staff and experts scrutinizing the filings for costs that do not provide customers with quantifiable benefits. 

“Our intervention in these cases is vital to ensuring corporate utilities aren’t successful in their efforts to stuff unjustifiable costs into their rate hike requests,” Nessel said in a statement. 

“There are standards concerning what costs Consumers Energy, DTE, and our other utility companies are allowed to pile onto their customers’ bills in their rates and other charges. My office is working diligently to hold the utilities accountable and keep unjustified expenses off the monthly bills of ratepayers,” she said. 

Earlier this year, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), which regulates electrical, natural gas and telecommunications industries within the state, approved a rate increase for Consumers where the company was granted a $92 million electrical rate increase after it requested an increase of $216 million. 

The increase took effect in March. 

In its statement, the Department of Attorney General said this latest rate request is tied to Consumers Energy’s $7 billion distribution plan, which Nessel previously criticized as lacking affordability, reliability and accountability. She has also called for a 96% reduction of the $136 million requested in Consumers’ ongoing natural gas rate case. 

In an email to the Advance, Katie Carey, director of external relations for Consumers Energy, pointed to the company’s efforts to improve reliability as the reason for the proposed electric rate increase. According to a statement released on May 29, the company will begin implementing its “reliability roadmap” which includes a new wildfire risk mitigation plan alongside efforts to bury 35 miles of power lines, upgrade infrastructure and perform proactive maintenance to improve reliability. 

“All parties want a more reliable system and that requires investments in the system in the form of rate cases. All supporting arguments to each investment to a case are accompanied by an explanation of why it is needed and how customers will benefit from the work we proposed,” Carey said, noting the company had submitted 3,700 pages of support and business cases as part of the most recent rate case. 

“We have [Electric Power Research Institute] data that shows delivering improvements ahead of a storm or outage equates to a 40% less spend than fixing it during an emergent event. We know customers don’t deserve lengthy, unexpected outages and that is why we would rather invest now at 40% lower cost than pay more when things fail later,” Carey said before noting the company’s commitment to improving reliability and anticipation to defending its position as the rate case moved forward.

Michigan's two largest power utilities, DTE and Consumers, are among the worst in the US for outages, according to the Detroit Free Press. (Sorry, this one is behind paywall.)

If we had utility choice, I could protect myself. It's called free market, consumerism, or competition - take your pick.

Whatever it's called, I think it works better that way. 

Healthier.