Key Michigan lawmaker calls for hearings on wave of winter power outages

Lansing — State House Majority Floor Leader Abraham Aiyash, D-Hamtramck, called Sunday for committee hearings on power outages that left hundreds of thousands of Michigan residents without electricity for days after an ice storm.

The severe weather hit the state Wednesday, leaving more than 900,000 customers without power. As of Sunday night, about 103,526 DTE Energy customers and about 33,668 Consumers Energy customers were still without electricity, according to the utilities.

Frustration among some elected officials appeared to be building over the weekend.

The days-long outages came in February amid cold temperatures. The high on Sunday in Detroit was expected to be 47. But overnight, the temperature was forecast to drop below 30.

“There have been people left in the freezing cold," Aiyash said in an interview on Sunday. "It is my hope that my colleagues in Lansing will call DTE in for questioning and have committee hearings so they can answer to the public."

Aiyash said he had received calls from people in his district with newborn babies, asking how long it was going to be until their power was restored. In a tweet, he urged Consumers and DTE to "pay customers back for lost food and medicine and reimburse them for outage time."

The lawmaker didn't specify on Sunday which House committees he hoped would examine the outages.

Meanwhile, other elected officials took to social media to express their exasperation. Ann Arbor City Council member Dharma Akmon said having thousands of residents without power or heat for days was "completely unacceptable."

Akmon shared the story of an elderly Ann Arbor resident, who "was shivering in her apartment with her pets."

DTE had restored power to more than 450,000 customers and remained "laser focused on restoring the majority of customers impacted by the storm by the end of the day," said Peter Ternes, spokesman for the utility, on Sunday.

"Our team will be working around the clock to restore power to both customers affected by the storm, and any additional customers who have had a power interruption since late Wednesday," Ternes said. "We completely understand the frustration being expressed and we will continue to work with state and local leaders on our shared goals of continuing to improve reliability, deliver cleaner energy, while maintaining affordability for our customers."

DTE and Consumers, Michigan's two dominant electric utilities, maintain an unusual relationship with Michigan lawmakers. State policy limits competition with the private utilities in their service areas. The utilities are regulated by legislators but also have spent millions of dollars on lobbying and influencing elections.

In 2022, DTE disclosed about $235,000 in spending on lobbying in Michigan. Consumers spent about $219,000. DTE's main political action committee spent $321,579 in 2022 while the main Consumers committee expended $262,973, according to state-level campaign finance reports.

After a wave of outages in the summer of 2021 that left more than 1 million customers without power, then-House Energy Chairman Joe Bellino, R-Monroe, held hearings and eventually called for the utilities to spend more on tree trimming.

The current House energy chairwoman, Rep. Helena Scott, D-Detroit, didn't respond to request for comment last week. Senate Energy Chairman Sean McCann, D-Kalamazoo, said on Thursday his first priority was seeing people get their lights back on and getting through the storm.

Aiyash argued Sunday that areas of Michigan served by entities other than DTE and Consumers, the state's largest utilities, seemed to have fewer problems in recent days although they were hit by the same ice storm.

U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Lansing, tweeted that "some parts of the state have long had reliability issues."

"This week was especially bad, so I’ve asked for briefings to understand what’s happening, & how we get at ongoing issues," Slotkin added.

cmauger@detroitnews.com