News and Press Releases

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.

Power outages are impacting the first day of school in Ann Arbor, and some parents are growing frustrated. On any other beautiful August day, Samantha McCully would love nothing more than to watch her kids play basketball in the driveway. But Monday was not that day.

Fire crews responding to downed lines and other hazards during Ann Arbor power outages have found themselves using unorthodox methods to alert DTE.

On Aug. 30, 1840, Hazen Pingree, the future Detroit mayor and Michigan governor, was born in Denmark, Maine.The progressive Republican was first elected in Detroit in 1889. Later, he was elected governor in 1896 as the state continued its transition from the Civil War years to the industrial age.

Public power backers say a municipal utility would improve performance because it would be accountable to the public rather than shareholders.

"I did just go grocery shopping, so I lost all my groceries," said Katharine Pepple about the last power outage that left her family without electricity for two days.