Michigan Democrats Introduce Law That Forces Utility Companies To Pay You When The Power Goes Out

This is a great idea

Sometimes you come across an idea & the thought that goes through your head is “that makes sense”. That’s what happened when I came across this story.

At a time when tariffs and corporate price gouging are stealing every penny from us in retail stores. At a time where Trump’s Epstein war in Iran is causing food and gas prices to skyrocket…it’s nice to see some people actually want to put money BACK in our pocket.

It seems like such a foreign concept anymore, because usually government policy is to enrich corporations & defraud us, as much as humanly possible.

While these practices are standard operating procedure for the Republican Party, Democrats have plenty of instances in joining in as well.

So I welcome this story. We deserve policies like this. Utility corporations in particular, have been seeing enormous profits the last couple years, mostly off of energy demands of data centers. So not only has energy demand been high, but these companies have raised their rates simultaneously.

Adding in the stress that data centers put onto the grid (which aren’t designed to handle this workload), black outs will become more and more common.

Power outages are currently top-of-mind for Michiganders after nearly 300,000 households lost power last week during severe storms and tornadoes. Many residents were even without electricity for up to four days.

“We’re standing up for Michigan families who had their power out for multiple days after recent storms, and were already paying too much on their monthly utility bills. We all deserve transparency and accountability from a system we pay so much into,” said Sen. Chang, sponsor of Senate Bill 1170. “I’ve seen firsthand how our residents in Detroit and Metro Detroit are struggling amid these extended power outages, losing food and resources they barely can afford. People deserve real action and fair reimbursement for grid failures that they have no control over.”

“Power outages continue to disrupt daily life for Michiganders across the state, and our communities should not be forced to pay the price,” said Sen. Geiss, sponsor of Senate Bill 1171. “These blackouts disproportionately impact low-income and Black and Brown communities. This injustice is unacceptable, and utility companies must be held accountable to reimburse ratepayers and local governments bearing the brunt of their failures.”

This legislation would provide Michigan ratepayers with hourly payments for outages over 72 hours and outage credits for four or more outages annually. The outage credits are designed to disincentivize excessively long outages. The bills would also prevent electric utility companies from using said credits to jack up monthly rates for customers. Electric utility providers would also be required to report more detailed outage and grid data to the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC).

“As Michiganders face soaring energy costs for unreliable service and excessive power outages, utility companies continue to rake in record profits — and it’s well past time to hold them accountable,” said Sen. Cavanagh, sponsor of Senate Bills 1172 and 1174.

This was shared by Senatedems . com

Meanwhile, the price gouged every consumer, will be paying more for a service that is becoming more unreliable.

So yes, not only in this particular case does this make sense, but in whole it does. People SHOULD BE reimbursed when services they pay for, are no longer available. Frankly, it’s the least we can ask for.

This story, once again, seems small compared to everything going on in the world, but let me explain why I’m taking a moment to focus on it.

As we go forward in these Trump years, it seems inevitable that Democrats will eventually retake power. This is something I welcome, after watching the fascism of MAGA sweep across this country.

However, I don’t want people to fall asleep at the wheel & just accept “any” Democrat that runs for office. Now of course, if this is a general election & the choices are D vs R, of course vote D. I’m more focused on the Presidential primaries that will begin next spring (yes, that soon) & the next batch of Congressional candidates coming for the 2028 cycle.

In this next wave of primaries, it’s imperative that we choose candidates that want to “tangibly” help the American people. We deserve candidates that will fight for us. Not just by defeating a MAGA opponent in an election, but through the actions they will take after being elected.

We deserve candidates that will challenge corporations, not take money from them & insulate them from accountability.

In essence, this is the overarching theme of my newsletter. If you go back through the stories I choose to post about…

I want to draw the attention of this audience to ideas & themes of a direction I think we should be moving towards.

This has never been about just defeating MAGA, this has always been about creating a party that actually represents us.

That party won’t be making it easier for companies to steal more from us, it will be actively trying to recover what we have lost.

This story is an incredibly small example of that, and we all know that utility companies paying us a small refund for power outages isn’t good enough. And frankly, I hope that my writing so far hasn’t seemed like that’s the point I’m making.

As I wrap this up, my point is simply this….

Any policy that favors people over corporations should be welcomed, and we should continue to push for more. I’m bringing this story to you today, because I want more people to embrace candidates and policies that challenge corporations. Please don’t simply be satisfied with supporting a candidate, just because they have a D next to their name.

We deserve better & we have to demand it.

Power to the people.

Until next time,

Desmond

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