News and Press Releases

Ann Arbor can go forward with creating a city-run sustainable energy utility after city voters approved the measure with 79% support in the Nov. 5 election. With all precincts fully counted, the vote on Proposal A was 47,299 yes to 12,854 no.

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.

During House floor remarks on Wednesday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) spoke against DTE’s “corporate greed.”

A2P2 Executive Director discusses Ann Arbor's upcoming municipalization feasibility study, and how the city's Sustainable Energy Utility might offer a stepping stone to full municipalization

As the weather continues to tease an early spring, one thing that residents of Southeast Michigan constantly worry about is what has yet to come. Although it’s true that we are on the upswing of the season and nearing spring, we are not normally out of the clear when it comes to a late snow or ice storm until well into the new season. It is not so much the weather itself that leaves many residents wary, but specifically what power outages may result from it.

The city of Ann Arbor is positioning itself to provide its own public utilities and potentially move away from DTE. The effort was prompted by an organization called Ann Arbor for Public Power. "It's the only real path forward we have solving this issue," said Greg Woodring, the president and founder of Ann Arbor for Public Power.

A Tree Town coalition calling for city-owned electric power has released a proposal detailing how the municipal utility would be governed. Ann Arbor for Public Power (A2P2) has been advocating for a completely renewable and public-owned electric utility system. The nonprofit is made up of residents and organizations hoping to move away from using investor-owned power companies.

Since July 2021, when the Ann Arbor Energy Commission first took up a resolution for a municipal electric utility feasibility study, A2P2 and city staff have been considering the municipalization option and its promise of a cleaner, more reliable electricity supply. In September, 2023, consulting firm 5Lakes Energy delivered its report, “City of Ann Arbor 100% Renewable Energy Options Analysis.” Among its conclusions was the following: “We suggest that the City authorize a Phase 2 Feasibility Study to characterize more precisely the costs and risks of the MEU [Municipal Electric Utility] approach.”

Ann Arbor for Public Power's proposed governance structure for a municipal electric utility in Ann Arbor.

LIHUE, Hawaii — It’s hard to find anywhere in the United States that has greened its electricity supply as quickly as verdant Kauai. And the people of Kauai achieved that on their own, through collective ownership of the electricity grid, not by hoping profit-maximizing utilities find a way to balance the urgency of human-caused climate change with quarterly dividends for shareholders.

limate activists have set their sights on a new target in the fight to slow global warming: utilities. Around a dozen communities across the country have launched campaigns to get rid of their investor-owned electric utilities — the for-profit companies that distribute electricity to three-quarters of U.S. households — and replace them with publicly owned ones.

In the summer of 2021, Southeastern Michigan was slammed with two major rainstorms that upturned the lives of countless residents. Apocalyptic images circulated of cars stranded on I-94 and houses completely inundated. And all too predictably, in the chaos over 800,000 Michiganders lost power.