Frequently Asked Questions

• A common anti-Prop E talking point is that Ann Arbor cannot competently run its own electric utility. Of course we can, by doing what every utility in the nation does: hire skilled management and workers. 41 other cities in Michigan run their own electric utility — 2,000 across the country. And they do it more reliably and affordably than private utilities. If they can do it, so can we.

• Currently, we are trusting DTE, and there is NO democracy or accountability. With public power, our electric utility is governed by and accountable to the people of Ann Arbor. 

• Ann Arbor more than competently runs a water utility and a wastewater treatment plant. 

• The city would not be alone. It will work with other state munis through the MPPA (Michigan Public Power Agency) on energy contracting, business services, and load prediction, among other tasks. These include sharing line crews during outages caused by extreme weather.

The board will have one seat (of the four appointed) reserved for a representative of organized labor.

The City Charter amendment specifies “a just transition for workers,” and ensures “that worker compensation, training and participation are core components in any decision relating to operation of the utility.”

City Council listed a number of objections to Prop E in its October 5 resolution. (We've added our responses.) Council’s points are all either false, actively misleading or irrelevant to Prop E. So we don’t actually know why Council has taken this position.

Council has not produced any legal documentation addressing our Charter amendment, but some Council members assert that the word “shall” in the amendment creates conflict with existing Charter language that gives Council ultimate authority over all budgets and borrowing. One Council member suggested that Prop E might even authorize legal action against DTE without Council approval. This is emphatically not the case—the amendment in fact explicitly affirms Council’s authority in all these areas. That is the opinion not just of our legal counsel but of the state attorney general’s office. That office reviewed Proposal E and concluded that our charter amendment is consistent with state law and does not conflict with the current City Charter.

• Public Power would be run by and for the people of Ann Arbor, allowing us to  reinvest for better reliability and ultimately lower rates. We can keep our money on State Street, not Wall Street.

• Studies show that lower income neighborhoods lose power far more often than wealthy ones, and that’s broadly true across DTE’s service area. 

• DTE also has one of the highest residential electric rates in the Midwest, especially burdening low income customers.

• By both investing in rooftop and community solar and contracting for wind and solar power through the grid, a muni would distribute renewable power across all incomes.

A2REC is a DTE front group that DTE funded with $1.8 million through mid-September — money from our electric bills used for a misinformation campaign against our interests.

A2REC was initially registered at One Energy Plaza, Detroit, which is DTE headquarters. After A2P2 publicized that fact, the address shifted  to a PO box in Washtenaw County.

There will not be a decades-long legal battle. Boulder, Colorado’s litigation with Xcel Energy lasted five years, 2014-2019, and that was an outlier. Those cases only lasted that long because the city made several strategic errors. We don’t need to repeat those mistakes.

DTE will almost certainly contest the cost of acquisition. A court will determine just compensation, and Ann Arbor voters will have the final say.

DTE’s front group already sued the city and its clerk — using OUR MONEY — to invalidate our petition signatures ahead of the vote. The case was thrown out in county court and then again on appeal.