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Electric utilities are diverging on the question of fossil fuels. All agree that coal is dying, but some are moving to a 100% clean energy future, while others are still trying to build gas. A tale of two Michigan utilities offers a great case study of the divide. Thread... 1/14
Our poster-child for the gas-guzzling utility is @DTE_Energy. DTE just released a plan to get out of coal by 2040 and reduce CO2 emissions significantly by that year. But it also is trying to preserve the option to keep build new gas-burning power plants. 2/14 
To justify building those gas plants, which will cost customers more $ than renewable energy, @DTE_Energy is juking the data in the plan it filed w/ regulators. Great info on this from @beninskeep (w/ more to come, I suspect, from @electronecon). 3/14
That raises an important question! Why does @DTE_Energy want to build gas plants when renewables are a better deal for customers and the climate? @energyandpolicy's @MattKasper dug into DTE's financials for the answer. 4/14 energyandpolicy.org/dte-energy-irp…
DTE’s biggest recent profit growth has come from its unregulated gas pipeline business. To build those pipelines, DTE needs power plants guaranteed to buy the gas. Its own power plants do just that trick, and conveniently it can get its regulated customers to foot the bill! 5/14
Here’s DTE’s COO hammering home the point of how much DTE sees the construction of gas plants (and the captive customers it can force to fund them) as providing the market for its pipeline business. 6/14
DTE’s Michigan neighbor, @ConsumersEnergy, is taking a different approach. Just like @DTE_Energy, Consumers has said it will be out of coal by 2040 and will reduce carbon emissions by a lot, but Consumers also pledged not to build ANY new gas. 7/14
Instead, @ConsumersEnergy is jumping into solar. The company will build 5,000 MW of new solar by 2030. DTE’s building 1/10th that amount. 8/14
.@ConsumersEnergy has no separate gas pipeline business, so while it still has a profit motive to be sure, it’s not conflicted toward gas. It has done its own math and found that renewables are a smarter deal for customers. 9/14
Here’s what @ConsumersEnergy CEO @poppepk said about gas plants in 2018: “A big bet is a 1,000 megawatt natural gas power plant. What I like about renewables is you don’t have to make that big bet…” 10/14
Consumers CEO @poppepk, cont: “We call this our clean and lean energy strategy. It’s lean because you only build to demand as opposed to building a 70-year asset that you hope you’re going to need.” 11/14 mibiz.com/sections/energ…
Consumers is far from perfect: it could be transitioning from fossil to clean energy faster, and dpeed is key. But it’s got the right North Star, and it’s not alone. @xcelenergy, @idahopower, @NIPSCO are other utilities *voluntarily* skipping the gas bridge to nowhere. 12/14
.@DTE_Energy is going to lower its CO2 footprint too, but the gas it is intent on building locks in infrastructure that will make decarbonization slower and more costly. Sadly, it’s not alone either. @DukeEnergy, @DominionEnergy & other utilities are still rushing into gas. 13/14
Those utilities building more gas are setting themselves up for problems with regulators and investors when the investments turn out to be imprudent. No one can say they weren’t warned. All DTE had to do was look west to its immediate neighbor to see a smarter path! fin 14/14
