DTE Energy Archives - The Handbuilt City

Infrastructure Utilities

Centralization: Economy of Scale? Looming Disaster? Lil Bit of Both?

March 26, 2021March 26, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments 1.21 jiggawatts, ann durkin keating, blair kelley, centralization, charles perrow, chicago streetcars, coal power, decentralization, detroit edison, detroit public lighting, detroit public lighting authority, distributed generation, DTE Energy, electrical generation, georg leidenberger, hazen pingree, hazen s. pingree, history of street lighting, invisible networks, mehrsa baradaran, mistersky power plant, municipal streetcar systems, municipal water systems, municipalization, networks, normal accidents, power grid, power grids, private responsibility, public responsibility, samuel insull, social contract, solar power, street lighting, streetcar systems, Streetcars, texas winter storms, the detroit edison, transit systems

Streetcars, gas and water pipes, power lines, and other “invisible networks,” to borrow a line from the title of Ann Durkin Keating’s book, make up a vibrant history of infrastructure in which centralization vs. decentralization is a big debate.

Energy Efficiency Poverty Energy Utilities

Debt or Asset? How Utility Shutoffs Are About To Be A Big Problem.

March 24, 2021March 24, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments ACA subsidies, accounts receivable, chevy aveo, debt, double-entry bookkeeping, dr. tony reames, DTE Energy, energy poverty, harvard business school, investor-owned utilities, investor-owned utility, LIHEAP, mercedes g-wagon, michigan public service commission, MPSC, public service commission, public utilities, regulated corporations, regulated entities, Tony Reames, utilities, utility shutoffs, willy wonka, willy wonka rant

Springtime and mounting debt related to COVID19 means utility shutoffs are coming. At least probably. Here are some ideas for how we can fix our broken systems for utility billing– and how we subsidize utilities through programs like LIHEAP without actually moving the needle on energy poverty.

Sustainability Poverty Energy Housing Utilities

MPSC December Meeting: Neighborhood-Level Equity and Energy

December 3, 2020December 3, 2020 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments affordable housing, Brad Banks, Briana Parker, CMS, Consumers Energy, Detroit, DTE Energy, economic justice, Elevate Energy, energy, energy justice, housing, Indiana Michigan Power, mary templeton, metro detroit, michigan, michigan public service commission, MPSC, public utilties, racial justice, racism, redlining, SEAS, segregation, SEMCO, Sharonda Williams-Tack, Sierra Club, Tim Skrotzki, Tony G. Reames, Tony Reames, utilities, water justice

Dr. Tony G. Reames of the University of Michigan, Briana Parker of Elevate Energy, and others presented at an MPSC meeting on some approaches to the question of equity in energy efficiency for low-income communities and communities of color.

Photography Environment

Travels and Travails in the Downriver Smog

February 10, 2020February 9, 2020 Nat Zorach 0 Comments allen park, arcelor mittal, capitalization, delray, Detroit, downriver, DTE Energy, ESG, krispy kreme, lincoln park, marathon petroleum, marathon refinery, MPC, nucor, rashida tlaib, river rouge, rouge river, violations, X, Zug Island

US Steel’s closure of its two Downriver plants raise the question of the future of the polluted areas around the x217 and x219 ZIP codes.

Energy Efficiency Environmental Justice Environment Utilities

The Red-Blooded, Gas-Fired Future of Midwestern Energy

October 26, 2018October 26, 2018 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments coal, DTE Energy, electric grid, electricity, elon musk, energiewende, energy poverty, lignite coal, michigan, michigan public service commission, ontario, photovoltaics, POCACITO, power grid, powerwall, public utilities, pv, renewable energy, solar panels, Tesla, utilities, Zug Island

I attended a forum on DTE’s Integrated Resource Plan Tuesday. The state’s public service commission, an entity that seems to

Environmental Justice Urban Planning Poverty

Highlighting Detroit’s Sustainable Community Development Projects

June 24, 2015June 25, 2015 Nat Zorach 0 Comments Delray Neighborhood, Detroit riverfront, Detroit solar, DTE Energy, energy efficiency, energy policy, environmental justice, environmental policy, Great Lakes Works, municipal incinerator, social justice, Sustainability in business, sustainable business, sustainable redevelopment, waste to energy, Zug Island

“We often hear about how it’s great to get like-minded people together in the same place,” one USGBC-DRC member