The Guardian: “Powerful US utilities secretly fund ‘grassroots’ groups to sway cities away from switch to public power”
The Guardian: “Powerful US utilities secretly fund ‘grassroots’ groups to sway cities away from switch to public power” (5/7/2026)
“The latest front is in Michigan, where the Ann Arbor Responsible Energy Coalition (A2rec) appears to be a local, grassroots organization opposing a public power campaign in the upper midwest city of about 123,000 people. But state filings show its mailing address was One Energy Plaza – the headquarters of DTE Energy, the deeply unpopular private utility giant that serves Ann Arbor.
Campaign finance records show A2rec is funded with nearly $2m from DTE, its contractors, the utility lobby and an industry consultant behind other front operations against public power. One of those helped defeat a 2023 statewide vote to establish public power across Maine.
Utilities are funding the front groups because “the public power movement is a direct threat to their profits”, said Sean Higgins, president of Ann Arbor for Public Power (A2P2).”