Thread by @ArtReyesIII

Nearly a million people in Michigan without power today. Storms swept the country, but Michigan took the brunt of power outages - again. Most of those without power are DTE Energy customers. A thread 🧵 1/

DTE Energy - an investor-owned utility monopoly - is among the least reliable energy providers in the country. Every year, when storms hits, hundreds of thousands lose power - sometimes for days on end. 2/

That hasn't stopped them from raking in record profits. Last year, they raked in $1.1 Billion, up front $907 million the year before. 3/ globenewswire.com/news-release/2…

Despite this, they want us to pay more for our utility bills. They are asking for ANOTHER RATE INCREASE. They want to raise our rates by almost 20%. 4/

https://twitter.com/CUBofMI/status/1627784080220733447?s=20

In short - hundreds of thousands of families are sitting in the cold without power AGAIN, while DTE Energy rakes in record profits for their shareholders and puts their handout asking for these families to pay more. 5/

Why is it this bad? DTE pours money into our politics in Michigan because it's paid off for them. They've effectively escaped much accountability despite consistent public outrage at awful service, long blackouts, and rising rates. 6/
energyandpolicy.org/dte-energy-pol…

But it doesn't have to be this way. We cannot treat this as normal. It's not ok that people in Michigan regularly go days on end without power and nothing is done about it because we haven't mustered the political courage to stand up to an investor-owned utility bully. 7/

AG @dananessel has called for transparency around utility money being used to influence policy makers. Last year legislators like @AbrahamAiyash & @RepRabhi introduced legislation to reign in DTE. More legislators have stopped taking their money. 8/ detroitnews.com/story/business…

Now that there is a Dem trifecta in the #mileg, we will have the political courage to stand up to DTE?

Enough is enough. We need legislators to stop taking their money as a first step to show they stand with the people. 9/

To our friends in the legislature, you don't need DTE money to win. You just need to stand firmly in your values & show people who's side you're on. 10/

Shout out to those that didn’t take DTE $ in 22: @AbrahamAiyash @BetsyCoffia @RepRheingans @jmhill926 @JasonMorganMI @Conlinforstate @JoeyforMichigan Lori Stone, Donavan McKinney, Erin Byrnes, @stephanielily @ShinkSue @rosemarybayer Rural, Suburban & Urban members said no to DTE$

Here's the link to research who gave money to your elected representatives: miboecfr.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/cfr/co…

@NoahArbit too! Keep these no DTE money legislators coming!

And here's where you can weigh in and let your representatives in the legislature know: DTE must pay

secure.everyaction.com/x9nv4BAbXkybLe…