Behind the Meter: An MPSC Podcast
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Behind the Meter: An MPSC Podcast
Reducing Michigan’s Energy Burden: The MPSC’s 6% Affordability Goal
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In this episode of the Michigan Public Service Commission’s Behind the Meter podcast, we explore the MPSC’s new energy affordability goal: reducing the energy burden for income‑constrained Michiganders to no more than 6% of household income.
Earlier this month, the MPSC established the 6% benchmark as the guiding standard for improving and coordinating energy assistance programs across Michigan. The goal is to shift from a crisis‑driven system to one focused on long‑term home energy security, ensuring families don’t have to choose between paying utility bills and covering essentials like food or medicine. MPSC
Resources:
Energy Affordability, Case No. U-20757 Issue Brief
Commissioners Introduce 6% Energy Burden Benchmark Instagram
Commissioners Introduce 6% Energy Burden Benchmark Facebook
Michigan Public Service Commission Consumer Tips Page
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Behind the Meter, MPSC podcast, where we discuss the people, policies, and technologies shaping Michigan's energy and technology landscape. I'm your host, Mike Byrne. Today we're talking about uh an issue affecting nearly every household in Michigan: affordability. Life is expensive right now. Families are balancing the rising costs of groceries, housing, health care, childcare, transportation, and of course, energy bills. That really raises an important question. How do we ensure people can keep the lights on and heat their homes without sacrificing other basic needs? Today we're we're joined uh by all three MPSC commissioners that we're going to be discussing the commission's ongoing work to address energy affordability and a recent milestone, the commission's June 11th order in case number U-20757. So let's jump right in. Um, and maybe Commissioner Myers, I'll start with you. Why was it important for the commission to focus on affordability in this moment? And what problem is it that the commission is trying to solve?
SPEAKER_01Sure, Mike, thanks. Um, the reality is that many families are facing difficult financial trade-offs. No one should have to choose between paying for their groceries, medicine, rent, or keeping the heat on. Energy affordability is about ensuring households can meet their energy needs, heating, cooling, and electricity without compromising other essential expenses.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think that's right. And unfortunately, we're seeing a growing number of families in Michigan and across the country who are ultimately forced into that, those sorts of difficult choices. There was a report out from the U.S. Department of Energy earlier this spring, the 2024 Residential Energy Consumption Survey, it's released every four years by the Energy Information Administration, and it painted what the National Consumer Law Center accurately described as, quote, an alarming picture of the growing challenges families face in heating and cooling their homes and keeping their lights on. And some of the key findings there were that 33% of U.S. households, so these are national numbers, but one in three households nationally are expensive, are experiencing energy insecurity. And that's up from 27% uh four years before. So you're finding people with unsustainable energy burdens, uh, and nearly 25% of the point you you made, Commissioner Myers, uh reported reducing or even foregoing food or medicine to pay their energy bills. So there are real challenges. And I know that we feel this in economy-wide numbers. The numbers released earlier this month that looked at at May found annual inflation of 4.2%. That's double the target rate of 2%. And when you look at energy only, it's actually 23.5%. We're obviously feeling that at the gas pump, but it's also showing up in in energy bills, electricity bills, natural gas bills uh as well, and increasingly so. The the electricity inflation is higher than the overall national average, and families are feeling that.
SPEAKER_00And that's really why we needed, we knew that we needed to act at the commission. With that backdrop that was set up really well with by by uh both Chair Scripps and Commissioner Myers, we knew that we it was time for us to do something. And that's what this order is uh order U-20757. And um where we are actually setting our North Star in this order and directing a dedicated group of people to go forward and put together details of our plan to get to a 6% energy burden for customers. And we'll talk extensively about what it what that means. But I also just want to make sure that we all understand that if this doesn't fix everything immediately, we're not gonna see immediate relief as a result of uh of this order. Um, it is an important milestone in a longer-term strategy to make energy more affordable and to strengthen energy security. Uh, but that staff team and group of dedicated stakeholders um is it's really they need to go forward from this point on and determine the program design.
SPEAKER_02So maybe Fish or Brighton, we'll we'll stick with you for a second. And when we say energy affordability, you know, what does that actually mean? How does the commission decide afford those?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitions matter, and this is a really important one. And the way that the way that we have chosen to define energy affordability is that it's the ability of a household to meet its home energy needs, which includes heating, cooling, natural gas use, and electricity without sacrificing other essential needs.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I would go a little bit further and say one of the ways we that we measure that is through something called the energy burden. Energy burden looks at the percentage of a household's income spent on energy bills. Research shows that when households spend more than about 6% of their income on energy, they begin to experience a high energy burden.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and we're seeing that that in Michigan. There's a group uh spun out of the University of Michigan called the Energy Equity Project that noted that 25% of Michigan households and nearly a million, I mean 998,000 plus spend more than that 6% threshold on energy. And that's that's higher than the national average. So um, but it's also highly correlated to to income. So not surprisingly, but uh those families that that are sort of at really, really struggling, so zero to 30% of the median income in an area spend a shocking 18% of their income on electricity and heat. And that compares to 13% nationally. So low-income Michiganders are are really struggling. When you get to between 30 per 30 and 60 percent of the area median income, that drops to 7%. So still above that that point at which at which we think that energy bills are sustainable, but but getting closer. And then if you go just above 60%, so 60 to 80 percent, it drops below. So now that you're at you're at 5%, again, these are averages, so different households, different energy consumption can play a pretty significant uh whether your home's weatherized, whether you know the all sorts of things go into that, but but there is a pretty high correlation with with income as well. And that gets to sort of how do you think about it, where do you set the target, and then how do you marshal the resources that you have around that goal to make sure that we're all rowing in the same direction?
SPEAKER_02So thank you, Chair Scripps. And at those those uh statistics that you've shared are really sort of paint the picture of of how many uh Michigan families are are struggling. So we you know we we probably didn't get to this point overnight. What how did the commission uh determine sort of that we needed to take the steps that that that have been taken in in the ordering U-20757? Uh and and sort of where are we going from here?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think one of the the major sort of pivot points in this journey was was COVID, uh honestly. That when COVID hit Michigan, when it hit the nation and indeed the world, I think for us at the commission, it really sort of forced us to sharpen our pencils. That how do we make sure that people don't fall through the cracks? As and I mean, if you go back to those early weeks, we didn't know how long it was going to last. We didn't know how deep the economic disruption was going to be or how what the impact was gonna be on families, but we knew right away that that we needed to get in front of it. And so literally within weeks of of the stay-at-home orders and and the other things that the and the arrival of COVID in Michigan, we issued an order that said, how do we think about making sure that we have the right assistance safety net in place as we go into these unexpected waters? And that really sort of that actually was the initiation of the 20757 docket. Um, but a year later, sort of even as as things started to get back to normal, it I think underscored how important this conversation was and how how much opportunity there was to do better with the resources that we have. And so in 2021, uh we launched the Energy Affordability and Accessibility Collaborative, or the EAAC, as part of those ongoing efforts. And that's really become the forum to bring together residents, customer advocates, nonprofit organizations, utilities, state agencies, really the the breadth of organizations and individuals that touch this subject and think about how do we get better at delivering assistance and making sure that we're prioritizing energy security and providing people with a path to self-sufficiency. And maybe the last thing I'll say about that is one of the things that that stands out in that is that you know, often these work groups bring together the usual suspects, the people who intervene in our proceedings or active uh in our discussions. We really tried to go beyond that and even bring in people who had had experience as recipients of assistance. How do you, from a customer perspective, how do we make this system work better better for people who are struggling to pay their bills, keep the lights on, heat their homes, along with everything else that families have to wrestle with?
SPEAKER_01The goal was to step back in and ask how can Michigan build a better system? Um, how do we simplify access to a system assistance, better coordinate programs, improve affordability protections? And at the same time, utilities were directed to test percent of income payment by player pilots, often called PIP pilots, so we can better understand how those work, right? Like sometimes a solution is not just it's not a straight shot. And you got to test a couple of things so that you can figure out what is the most effective way forward.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and thank goodness we started when we did in 2021 because those those pip pilots that you just mentioned, percentage of income came in plan pilots, a lot of peace. Um, that uh they those were two-year pilots. Like we we tested this system or version of what we what we came up with. We've since modified it and approved it, but we tested this for two years and put the put the all of the pieces into place, started the ball rolling back in 2021. Um, and that work, that many years of work that we've been able to put into this, both with uh the work from the EAAC that Chair Scripps mentioned, the uh corresponding low-income energy policy board that oversees the EAAC and other work, and all of their work that they did on uh it wasn't just these pilots. It was on broader affordability and assistance. It was on data analysis and regulatory review, on the uh critical critical care pieces and uh some of the some of the outcomes that we've been able to get um taking care of those uh those customers who who needed um a little bit more. Um the on education and outreach, right? Like there was there was a lot of pieces that went into this. Uh, but really the one of the biggest parts of all of that focus was really just on the customer and their experience and how they were uh experiencing the system of assistance. So they we can put together a system that works best for them, is the most cost effective. And uh that work, that those years of data research and collaboration, that ultimately informed uh the energy affordability report that our staff filed in at the end of 2025, which then led to uh the the commission's recent order, the UP-20757 that we keep mentioning. Um, so there's a lot of a lot of background that went into this. And I'm I'm so glad that we we had the foresight to start that back in 2021 that really led us to where we are today.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think it's so important to stress that this is years in the making, right? This is not like a fly by night idea that we had because of press or any other thing, that this is work that is evidence-based, that we have spent years researching to get to this point and the work and and also to point out that the work isn't finished. This is another step in getting to real sustainable solutions for customers.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and so I I appreciate all of that in terms of of background. I just want to highlight the size that you know, these are complex issues, they don't have sort of easy solutions. I think that's uh evidenced by the fact that the staff report that you've referenced is like 400 pages, right? There was a lot of information in there. Um, it was years in the making, and then the deliberations that you all have engaged in to be able to get to the point where when the geo-level order could be released, maybe we can talk a little bit about what's in that order, what are we actually seeing um in the U20757 order and and what's the maybe your biggest takeaway for our listeners?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I really think it does two big things and then a lot of stuff along with it. But the first is is as Commissioner Peritek mentioned earlier, it it identifies that 6% energy burden as our North Star. So the at the end of the day, it is our belief, and for the first time, we're formally adopting it as the position of the commission that no Michigan family should pay more than 6% to heat and and uh power their homes. And that that really sort of is a it's a it's a line in the sand that that is the the goal that we're gonna we're gonna shoot for. And and it's evidence-based, as you mentioned, Commissioner Myers, it's data-driven, it's human-driven. I think that's the combining the data and then the stories from people who have gone through the system and found it far more difficult to navigate than it should be, um, it has been one of the key takeaways. So setting that 6% um to try and drive down energy burdens for all Michigan families to that 6% level is the first thing. The second is to say, what's the best way to get there? And of the with the resources that we have, too often they've just been, they they haven't been well coordinated or well aligned around any particular goal. We didn't have a goal. And so it was try and help as much as you can. But but this gives us, I think, an organizing principle. And uh the path that we've identified is for a number of years, utilities in partnership uh with grantees under the Michigan Energy Assistance Program or MET have offered affordable payment plans to customers to help them not just sort of respond to crisis when you've got a shutoff notice, but to keep their heads above water, to have some of that self-sufficiency that provides security to families who are struggling to make it. And those, that affordable payment plan structure we found works and in fact works better even than the PIP uh pilots that were mentioned earlier. Um, although there are lessons drawn directly from those PIP pilots, including the fact that it actually lowered the number of people who are falling behind on their bills. So, how do we take the best of both of those and build a structure around that 6% goal to make sure that we're helping more people to keep their heads above water and to make sure that they're not not falling behind, they're not entering a crisis position, but able to ultimately make ends meet when it comes to affording their energy bills.
SPEAKER_01So when talking about that 6%, I think it's important to like do a little bit of a breakdown. It's not 6% for gas or the 6% for electric, it is a breakdown of 4% for electricity costs and 2% for natural gas costs. And again, um, setting that goal gives us somewhere that we're reaching towards, right? When we're trying different programs, it's like, oh, what works towards accomplishing that goal? And I think oftentimes when when people, when you're working towards something, if you don't have a set goal, you often find yourself spinning out. And so I can really appreciate um the that, you know, the work and the research led to that as a goal and that we're continuing to build programs that get us there.
SPEAKER_00Totally. And and it's it's about aligning all of the different assistance programs, not just what we do at the commission, but working, working to align all of the different assistance programs, like the uh energy waste reduction programs, like weatherization programs, like other federal uh assistance programs that can that can go to help these vulnerable customers, and trying to coordinate all of those towards this North Star of that 6%. So then we can all work together in a more coordinated and effective way to hopefully get everybody to that level uh who's able to participate on these programs.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think bottom line is like by putting a target out there, a long-term affordability target, now we have something to strive towards. And it helps us to better align assistance programs and really reduce the number of Michigan families that are struggling with unsustainable energy credence.
SPEAKER_02So thanks for saying that. I think what I've heard all of you talking about this is this does sort of give us uh a goal to aspire to. Um, what does that mean sort of for the near term? And and what what should people expect? Like, you know, should we see bill released immediately, or is this something that is gonna take a little longer to be able to effectuate?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like I mentioned earlier, like the the honest answer is that no, this is not going to change things overnight for utility customers. Um, the this order directs the next steps to implement this program and there's more work to do. Like I said, I'm so glad that we started all of this work back in 2021 because it takes a long time to put to do all of that coordination that we've just described and to get all of those uh those those programs aligned and the assistance aligned and make sure that we're we're we're putting together a cost-effective program that's actually going to have an impact on customers. So this it we we still have some remaining work to do. Our staff is going to work through a work group, bring in a bunch of other interested parties who will be able to help them come to this final program design. This is a really solid outline for what that is going to look like. And now we know where that end goal is, but we still need to get those details in place. And that's going to take a little bit more time.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think that that's right. But it also allows us to have a conversation that's really focused on implementation. So we we know where we're going now. And so it's how do we how do we sort of take the steps in in partnership with the groups that we work with, including other state agencies, the nonprofit community-based organizations that with which we partner uh to administer the meat program uh and and the the different funding streams that ultimately play into this, including the utilities. And they have for a number of years offered credits to customers who are struggling. But again, it it wasn't as well coordinated as it needed to be. And it wasn't around how do you make sure that you're driving towards self-sufficiency and energy security, that you're not allowing, even with the assistance programs, a credit here, a credit there, you know, some support from me agencies, maybe you know, helping you dig out if you're in crisis. None of that actually gets people on their feet in a way that feels stable. And so knowing that's the goal, it allows us to have a different conversation that's much more focused on implementation of like we know what we need to do. Now, how do we get there as quickly as we possibly can?
SPEAKER_01What's important is that we are building a system that's easier to understand, simpler to access, and more targeted towards customers who don't need the support most.
SPEAKER_02So I think one of the the key elements in uh the order that the mission adopted related to affordability payment or affordability payment plans.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so these are programs that again were have been offered in partnerships between the MEEP grantees and the utilities. And essentially how they've worked is to uh instead of so let me take a step back. The old model, um, and in fact the requirement that was written into law until 2024 was that if you were struggling with your utility bills uh and went to uh to get help, you needed to show that you were in crisis, that you needed to have a shutoff notice, a past due notification if you were a propane customer, that you were, I think, below 10% of your tank volume. And that sort of drove a system where people waited to get into crisis because it it was the only way to get help. That clearly doesn't promote energy security. It's important. Getting people out of crisis situations is important, but it doesn't drive the energy security that that allows people to actually have a sense that they're going to be okay. And so one of the things that the legislature did in the 24 reforms to the MEAT program, and one of the things that we've been pushing for and how utility programs have been operated is to really allow for self-sufficiency to be to be the goal, along with crisis alleviation. And affordable payment plans do that by essentially identifying what a customer can afford to pay, what and then based on, and again, this gives us some parameters that 6% is the number. And then what do they need based on their income, their uh energy consumption to stay at that level? And uh so this provides sort of more regular supports that you pay, you know what you're gonna pay every month. Um you can spread some of the costs over the course of the year, but also your your payment contribution, your contribution as a customer uh that's struggling is then layered with with dependable assistance supports to essentially the goal is to keep you from falling behind. And we've seen real success with that uh with meat funded affordable payment plans done in in concert with the utilities. We're now trying to sort of scale that to other funding sources, but using the affordable payment plan model of you pay this, and then there's additional support that's layered in to keep you from falling behind as the cornerstone of the of this new approach.
SPEAKER_00And part of what we're trying to do with this order is align the utility programs with those meet programs. That's exactly right. So, what from a customer's perspective, if you're a customer that's struggling and you're below that income threshold and you go to get assistance, you don't Have to pay attention to where that assistance is coming from. Like, it what do you do you go to meep? Do you go to your utility? How do you go to a federal program? Right? Like that's that's confusing. And customers are who are in these vulnerable situations should not have to be thinking about that. They should just be able to go to an agency and get assistance. And that's part of that alignment between what the utility programs are offering and what the meep programs are offering is part of what we're trying to accomplish here. So they look the same. And customers don't have to care about where that assistance dollar, those assistance dollars are coming from. And they'll they'll all be able to uh to work towards that 6% energy burden, no matter if that's through MEAP or if that's through uh through a utility program. And also it's a big part of what we're continuing to try to determine uh and streamline for part of these programs is um making the sign-up process simpler and easier and the requalification process. So after, you know, people's incomes change, right? Like the year by year for various reasons. Your household size can change, your income can change, your energy usage can change, like that, all of all of those things change. But how do we simplify the re-qualification process year over year to make sure that if the customers are who are eligible are getting the assistance level that they want, and also with the least amount of burden to try to prove that level simultaneously. So it's not only just about that level, that 6%, but it's about streamlining that process for customers.
SPEAKER_01The bottom line is this is is not about assembling more programs. This is a long-term strategy to reduce energy burden for customers, a smarter coordination.
SPEAKER_02So that's great. I and I I think one of the things that we've talked about is sort of impact at low-income customers. And certainly that's the the group that we want to be able to prioritize. But affordability isn't just an issue for full income uh populations. Everybody's sort of feeling this. So are there other things that the commission is doing to be able to help uh promote, prioritize affordability for all customers?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, this is so much of what we do on a daily basis. Like the the uh costs for you, utility costs come into every single position that that we make uh at the commission, pretty much. It is it is truly central. And we are surgical in any cost increase approvals that we make through through these rate cases. Um, and as a result of that, we've been able to support spending for utilities in areas that have the biggest impact, like tree trimming, like other grid maintenance, um, while being able to hold residential customer bills well below the national average and below the average of neighboring states. And we've also been able to keep customer cost increases to more than 5% below the rate of inflation between 2020 and 2025. So while improving those grid upgrades and those and those maintenance. And that really has resulted in improvements to reliability in recent years for our two dollar-gaste utilities after decades of poor performance and reduces the financial impact of outages on customers too. So um we're really thinking about the that overall cost impact of those rates that everybody pays in all of the decisions that we make and making sure that we're when we approve cost increases, we are only approving the cost increases that are reasonable and prudent, and making sure that our customers are getting the biggest bang for their buck.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Mike, I'm so I'm so happy you asked about like affordability is more than just our lowest income customers, right? Like this is again, it's it's something that we talked about a lot. Like we you focus on people that are in crisis and you focus on and then you move up the scale, but it is something that applies to everyone. We don't want to create an unsustainable energy burden for people who are maybe just outside of low income or who maybe not aren't eligible for um some of the other programs. I think uh given examples of other ways that affordability shows up in our programs, more to build on your point, uh, Commissioner Peritic, the energy waste reduction programs, the way we do utility planning for long-term, um through the IRP process, evaluating low-cost alternatives in rate cases. Also, I think what would maybe an important flag is literally in every single case we ask, can this be done more effect efficiently, more effectively? Is there a lower cost option that still gets us the same reliability results? That is a constant that I've noticed in all of our cases, right? That it's like we all take turns asking those kind of questions.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and maybe if I could, I just we're in solid agreement on all of this, but maybe just to, I guess I'm full of numbers today, but adding a little bit of data to two of the points that that you raised, Commissioner Myers. The first on energy waste reduction, we have some of the best programs that really align customer interests and utility interests in ways that ultimately lead to customer savings in the country. We we actually save more natural gas than any other state. We're number two in electricity savings. We're much more cost effective in managing those programs than most other leading states, to the point that we saw the programs that were approved um last year in our last year's uh energy waste reduction report are projected to save $1.4 billion over the lifetime of those measures. And we're getting $2.40 in customer savings for every dollar that we put into the program. So that really does help in managing the cost pressures in a particularly in an era of high inflation. But but I'd even go further than that because we have, by by really leaning into energy waste reduction, taking the waste out of the system, been able to offset the need for two additional full-scale gas central station generation plants. That's a big that was a big deal five years ago. Today, when those the price of those plants has essentially tripled over that timeline, it's even bigger. And so at a time where we're seeing energy market prices go up and the regional markets like PJM and MISO sort of having used through some of the surpluses, if it's a little tighter than it has been in the past, the fact that we have been able to meet Michigan's energy needs by eliminating some of the waste in the system really helps with affordability. The other piece is on grid utilization, I think we'll have more to say about this in in the upcoming weeks and months, but but we have a system where we've invested billions and billions of dollars. How do we get more out of the system that we have? How do we use more before we build more? Um, and that I think really has the opportunity to, as we're thinking about different pathways, help in maintaining affordability. There was a recent report from the Utilize Coalition, a new group that's sort of prioritizing this that says that nationally, and again, national numbers, but $110 billion in potential savings over the next decade if we use what we already have more efficiently than we are today. So looking at some of those grid utilization metrics and how do we get the most out of the system that we already have, even as we know that we've got a lot of work in upgrading and preparing for the future. But those are some of the holistic ways through planning and leaning into to driving the waste out of the system that we can help with affordability, even in a pretty challenging national environment from an affordability standpoint.
SPEAKER_02So it sounds like there are efforts underway at the commission to be able to drive costs as as low as possible and to make sure that the that the rates that customers are paying are are sort of reflective of sort of the most reasonable ways of serving customers' needs. We're also sort of looking ahead at ways to better align our our uh our the programs for our most vulnerable customers and that those should be fruits in some plan in the future. But what if you're like struggling right now? What do you do? Um are there are there assistance programs that are available and how should should folks um go about trying to take advantage for that?
SPEAKER_00Yes, there are. Um absolutely. So I've I've said a couple of times that this 6% level for the utility affordable payment plans doesn't go into effect for a while. We have to sort out the details, but that doesn't mean that there isn't assistance now. There's plenty of assistance that's available now, both through your utility and through other programs, like the MEET program, the Michigan Energy Assistance Program that that uh has been mentioned multiple times, through the state emergency relief program, through the home heating credit, through other weatherization programs. There are plenty of these assistance programs that are available and find them by going to the MPSC's webpage that's uh that's called Get Help. So if you if you find the Get Help webpage on our website, uh you'll be able to find the ways to apply or ways to get in contact with each one of those programs, or by calling 211. They'll be able to get to to direct you to the right place as well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I and I think maybe one thing to recognize, and I'll give credit to Commissioner Myers in her previous role, but the legislature in 2024 actually expanded uh both eligibility and funding for the Michigan Energy Assistance Program. And um that that goes a long way. So prior to those reforms, it was capped at $50 million per year. Uh and ultimately the and the people who could apply were were limited to those who were at or below 150% of the federal poverty limit. Um the legislative reforms in 2024 removed that cap and increased the uh modestly 25 cents per month uh per per customer, uh, the amount that could be collected, to the point that the next fiscal year that starts on October 1st will have just north of $90 million uh in the fund. And and people with incomes up to 200% or thereabouts, it's 60% of state median income, which is roughly equivalent to 200% of the federal poverty limit, are eligible to receive assistance under that expanded ADA fund. So there are dollars available and and 211, uh, I think it's mi211.org if you're online, um, or just dialing 211 or going to the the get help page on our website are are great ways to connect with the resources that are available.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think we want to just stress that help exists today. Um, and and the commission is working to continue to strengthen what our resources and what's possible, but help exists today, and and a person shouldn't wait until they're in an emergency to reach out for assistance.
SPEAKER_02Maybe I'll ask one more question before we start to wrap things up. I think one of the the emphases in the Juno Web4 was on energy security. And I'm kind of curious how you all think that affordability and energy security out of play and sort of why this matters.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I maybe I'll start on this one. It goes back to maybe where I started, but we know that there's a lot of drivers that affect sort of affordability. It's the energy costs themselves, obviously. And that's that gets a lot of attention and gets a lot of attention in the commission as well. And it's one of the reasons why we really have thought it important that to take a disciplined approach to the rate requests that are put in front of us and with the results, as Commissioner Peritek mentioned, of keeping residential energy bill growth to 5% below the overall rate of inflation since 2020. But but we also know that it's highly correlated to that household's income, that it's particularly challenging, whatever the energy costs are, if if your income is failing to keep up. And so we know that folks at 0 to 30% need more help than those who are are closer to median income, and that north of 60% is is uh median income is really where you start to see that break-even point where where bills can still are still a challenge, but they're they're manageable. It's 6% or less of household income. But obviously, that also depends on how much energy you use. And so things like the weatherization of your home, all of that plays out. I think one of the things that this does is to sort of take note of those realities and the intersection of income, energy usage, and energy costs, and try and figure out a way, instead of like responding to people who are predictably in crisis over and over again, give them the tools that they need to be more self-sufficient and to have that level of security when it comes to whether or not they're going to be able to afford their energy costs.
SPEAKER_01When households face high energy burdens, it just creates um instability, right? Missed payments, shut-off, um, unsafe temperatures and difficult trade-offs. We we want to break that cycle, right? Like creating an affordable system just it helps everyone, including the people who maybe aren't struggling, right? Like creating a safer system benefits us as a society.
SPEAKER_00Sorry, just get excited. No, no, totally. And it reduces costs for all customers, right? Like then you don't have the the rigids, you don't have the collection services. Like it just get it, get it, and and people are paying their bills, right? Like this is this this ends up benefiting the system as a whole, um, and really helping the people who really need it to lose.
SPEAKER_03And I think I just bit sorry, I think we're all excited about this, but but it I think it that's really important because we are right now in a cycle where we people predictably get behind, they can't afford, they get shut off, they there's cost to those shutoffs, there's cost to the arrearages, the unrecoverable bad debt that utilities incur ultimately gets passed on to the rest of their customers. How do we get on the good foot, as James Brown liked to say? Like there is a better path here, and it's it really is like if we can reverse that, then those uncollectible expenses, those arrearages, that bad debt, all of that goes away. And at the same time, and more importantly, in my mind, people are okay that they are able to it's this is never going to be free. The system needs investment. I think everybody realizes that, but getting to a place where that's actually affordable, that that's the goal here.
SPEAKER_02So I appreciate the passion all of you bring to this issue. And I would love to hear from each of you, maybe just a final takeaway for our crowd of the sippers.
SPEAKER_00Sure, maybe I'll just start quickly. But I I'm just really excited that that we're able to see meaningful progress as a result of this the June 11th order and really see that progress towards a more affordable future. I just want to just say thank you to all of the many people who contributed along the way. Like our stab team has been unbelievably dedicated to making this happen over like we like we said earlier, like over the last five years, there's been a ton of work that's been into this. Yes. And our staff, but also the EAAC and all of the people who contributed to that and and just all of the the commenters and and stakeholders who have been a part of this process along the way. It's been it's been a lot, it's been a long time, and there's more work to do. But I'm just really excited that that we we've been able to take this step and and actually start to start to see some some outcomes from all of this work.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we recognize that life is expensive, and and I and we're not looking to put a mandate on it, right? We're we're looking to create a sustainable solution that helps everyone.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and maybe just two things for me. The for the first is, you know, we talked a lot about statistics. There's obviously, I mean, regulatory processes are are exhausting sometimes. There are literally thousands of pages that we reviewed, pilot programs and the reports that came out of those pilot programs, a 400-plus page report from the staff trying to synergize all that we've learned. But at the end of the day, this is about people and it's about dignity. It's about how do you get and stay on your feet, even with a lot of headwinds in all sorts of other parts of life, groceries, gas, everything else, but in a way that makes this maybe something you don't have to worry about quite as much as you did before. And giving people that ability to be self-sufficient, to be a little bit more energy secure, to drive down the folks that that have unsustainable energy burdens and ultimately providing a modicum of dignity. Like if we can do that, that's that's what we're trying to get to. But we also know it's a process, and there are a lot of folks who are struggling today. And for those who are struggling today, as we talked about earlier, help is available. So reach out to the commission, to two-on-one, to your utilities, to the grantees that operate in your neighborhood. There are resources, and there are people who want to connect you with those resources.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. Uh, and thanks to each of you for helping to explain this work and also for your leadership on these issues. It this is really remarkable progress as you can. I want to thank our listeners to as well for tuning in. Uh, the the commission's Judo Levitic Order is an important milestone in Michigan's ongoing work to make energy more affordable, accessible, and secure. So thanks to all of you. All right, before we bring our show to the up close today, we want to take a minute to dedicate this episode to to Kate Damon, uh, who we we recently lost. She was a beloved colleague and member in the APSC family and an important part of the team that that makes this show possible. So uh commissioners, I just wanted to give each of you an opportunity to say uh a few things uh uh about Kate.
SPEAKER_03We often talk about the commission as a family. And um for those of us who have the privilege of working here, it really does feel that way. And Kate was a big part of that family. Um, for a lot of us, she was the first person that we met, or among the first. She worked in our IT department and was great at it. I can't tell you the number of times that I bugged her for help with issues big and small, but but it she was also the one that gave us our first computers that signed us in to email. Um and so she was the first person that a lot of members of the commission interacted with. But because she was part of also how we broadcast our meetings and in fact, behind the scenes on this podcast, she was also the first person a lot of the members of the public interacted with. And she was a great face for the commission. And that energy, that life force that she brought to everything that she did, both at the commission and as as we learned in in the sort of many tributes since her passing, uh, the to every every other activity that that made her life so incredible. That life force lives on in how she touched the people with whom she interacted with and and the impressions that she left on on all of us. I think we're better today because Kate Damon was a part of us, and uh, but it's but it's a loss that's hard to fit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, to echo the chair statement, Kate was my first point of contact, right? Like, and and as a newer member to the commission family, you often don't know what you're walking into. You don't know the culture. Um, and and there is a bit of nervousness, like being a new kid in school. And you know, I can't words really can't cover like how you meet people, and you're like, this is my person. I know there's a system I'm supposed to email the general IT email address. I never did that. I never did that. Kate was was my person, whether she knew it or not. She she just was, and even you know, the commission feels the lots professionally, personally, we can't fully express like the contribution that she made to um to us, and so uh she is missed.
SPEAKER_00One has no other before I'm sorry, yeah. It's fine, but you know what's what's funny though is that um everybody who I've talked to, Shikila, you said that like she was the person that you just went to, um, and like your person, your contact, like she was that for me too, and she was that to pretty much everybody who I talked to, and she never complained about it. Like she she was that first point of contact for everybody and seemed to seemed to just take it on and be happy, and and she was just like such a light. And um, this yeah, recording today, uh, without her here behind the camera, um, it does really feel different. And uh we're we're really grateful for the last name mark that she made on the work that we do on our lives, on the way that we um we've been able to do our work uh as a as a result of her dedication and the way that we've been able to better serve uh serve Michigan there is because of Wavelett's work and the way that she was able to be our person for each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, the old saying that you'll forget what people say and what they do, but you'll never forget how they made you feel. And I think that, I mean, Kate made all of us. I mean, that that's the market that she left.
SPEAKER_02Thank you all for your thoughts. Kate taken from us way too soon.