Renewable, Reliable, Responsible Electricity for Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor for Public Power is an organization of local residents advocating for a 100% renewable, public-owned electric utility for our city. Join us in the fight for a cleaner, more affordable future for Ann Arbor!
Prop A: The City’s ‘Sustainable Energy Utility‘
The City of Ann Arbor has put ‘Prop A’ on the November 2024 ballot for city residents to decide whether to adopt a ‘Sustainable Energy Utility’ or ‘SEU.’
Prop A is not Ann Arbor for Public Power’s plan. Our plan is to fully unplug from DTE; the SEU does not do so. We believe we can run the electric utility better than one of the most unreliable, unaffordable, unresponsive, and dirtiest electric utilities in the nation– and we can do it with 100% renewable energy.
Learn more about the differences between our plan and the city’s ‘SEU’ below.
At our annual Earth Day celebration, we asked members why they support public power in Ann Arbor. Check back for more videos coming soon!
Share Your Story
Did DTE go dark on you too? Let’s hear the details.
After 10 years of outages, we spent $3000 I guess on a new generator plus another thousand or so for the electrician. Ridiculous. The anxiety of always worrying that you were gonna lose power when you work from home and you have deadlines.
Rebecca Prichard
Jan 13, 2024
In the July power outage we lost all the pumped breast milk for our newborn baby girl. This was especially bad because there is still a formula shortage.
What compounds the frustration is that the exact same thing happened in 2020 when we lost all the pumped breast milk for our son.If we were to calculate my wife’s pumping labor in terms of dollars, we’ve lost easily over $2000 in milk.
$2000+ in breast milk just gone because we are forced to live under a monopoly
Mark Rivett
August 26, 2023
I moved to Michigan last December from Wisconsin and since then we have had 5-6 outages and 3 of those lasting 4-5 days in length. I’ve had to miss work, get hotel rooms to keep my children and dog safe, throw countless food away because we don’t have a generator. It isn’t something I ever needed growing up and I am from Green Bay. We get far worse winter storms up there and I only ever remember a handful of outages in my entire 29 years. We shouldn’t need to spend $15k-$20k on a generator just to have reliable power. Just to keep the lights on and our children safe, fed, and warm. I’m honestly disgusted with the complete lack of transparency, care, and accountability from DTE. Also appalled by the nerve they have to raise their prices. For what? Unreliable and outdated equipment and subpar service.
Meghan Dulzo
Jan 13, 2024
Many of us have experienced and outlined the two significant power outages this summer. Besides the inconvenience of the outage you have the food loss from refrigerator and freezer plus the cost of eating in restaurants. In addition for our family approximately 5-6 years ago DTE had a transformer malfunction which caused damage to many of our electrical appliances. Cost was $8,000.
What I have not seen discussed is the financials of DTE. Year end June 2023 they posted a $6.4 billion profit. The CEO was paid over $10 million in salary and bonuses. At least 5 C suite employees were paid over $2.5 million for the year. Does anyone think this kind of profit and pay is absurd? We consumers have little choice for electricity and this monopoly utility company should be accountable to their customers and our public leaders. The question I raise is who from the government regulates DTE?
Dan Iott
August 30, 2023
We relocated from Chicago to Ann Arbor less than 8 months ago. Since then we have had to power outages lasting longer than 2 days and now as I write this another that has just begun. The response time to these outages is appalling considering that after looking at the rate increases over the past decade and the profits DTE has amassed one would think that they would invest in outage protocol. I work in construction and have to deal with DTE directly so I have quickly found that delivering on promises and obligations is not important to them. The first outage was brutal with temperatures dropping in our home to 39 degrees and the second leaving hundreds in groceries spoiled.TV campaigns featuring a robot like spokesman strolling the streets of Ann Arbor touting DTE’s commitment to delivering service and quick restoration during outages is laughable.
Kirk Tobolski
July 26, 2023
I’ve lost power a total of 11 times in the last 6 months and am less than impressed with DTE energy. The latest outage occurred two days ago and is still ongoing, following a storm. Despite reporting the 2 downed power lines across from our apartment complex, we haven’t seen a single DTE energy truck in our area. In 95+ degree heat with no way to cool off, this is completely unacceptable.
Anonymous
July 28, 2023
In the last 6 months, we have been without power for a total of 10 days. During all of this time I’ve been pregnant… from first trimester severe morning sickness in the cold and dark in February, to my third trimester in sweltering heat in July with no A/C to now in August being only a couple weeks away from due date and not being able to pick up propane tanks to run our generator. I’ve had to call out of my healthcare job 3 times to keep my generator going for the health and safety of my pets and my own mental health. As a family who is new to the state of Michigan and only here for a medical residency, part of our decision to make a home elsewhere, when residency is over, may be affected by the atrocious service that DTE provides compared to the other 5 states my husband and I have lived in. Hoping that there can be better power solutions for such a great city and disappointed that there currently isn’t adequate infrastructure to make this happen.
Anonymous
August 26, 2023
We were recently without power for a full 48 hours, and our entirely full fridge of food spoiled. We had to throw away hundreds of dollars worth of recently purchased groceries, straight into the trash can. We are not extremely wealthy people, and are having a hard time coming up with the budget to replace these groceries anytime soon. We will likely have to buy very few and live off of very little for at least a few weeks.
Anonymous
July 29, 2023
News
Michigan Senator Sue Shink endorses A2P2
Survey shows Ann Arbor’s reliance on DTE will significantly delay city’s carbon neutrality goal
9/13/2024 – WEMU, Kevin Meerschaert
*A2P2 Note* The “municipal electric utility” mentioned in the last paragraph of the article is NOT referring to a full MEU but the city’s proposed Sustainable Energy Utility.
“The group Ann Arbor for Public Power says, as long as the city continues to use DTE as its power utility, it won’t come close to reaching its goal of carbon neutrality by 2030.
As part of the A2Zero action plan, every year, the City of Ann Arbor conducts a Greenhouse Gas Inventory to track its progress. A2P2 says, looking at the numbers, it will be decades before the city reaches its goal.”
Ann Arbor’s Public Pathway to Reliable Power — Episode 207 of Local Energy Rules
4/24/2024 – Institute for Local Self Reliance
For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell is joined by Gregory Woodring, the president and founder of Ann Arbor for Public Power. They discuss the ways that investor-owned utility DTE Energy has failed Ann Arbor customers and how the city could take over and provide better service.
Click here to listen to the podcast episode on the ILSR website.
DTE tells investors that fossil fuels are the future
4/27/24 – Ann Arbor for Public Power
In DTE’s April 25 “earnings call” for investors, DTE Energy CEO Jerry Norcia doubled down on fossil fuels. In 2022, DTE replaced its St. Clair coal plant with fossil gas, and it plans to convert the Belle River coal plant to gas by 2028. As for the massive Monroe coal plant, which DTE has agreed to close in 2032: “what we’re pursuing there is current technology, where we can use natural gas with carbon capture and storage.” That seems to be the plan beyond 2032, too. “The growth [in power] demand that we’re looking at, like data centers [for AI], are 24 by 7 operations, that will need generation, and power, that cannot be interrupted,” Norcia said. “More 24 by 7 dispatchable generation.”
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