DTE Energy Archives - The Handbuilt City

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Energy Efficiency Urban Planning Poverty Affordable housing Energy

MDHHS and LIHEAP: We’ll Pay For Fossil Fuels. Weatherization, Not So Much.

September 2, 2021September 2, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments Brad Banks, cardi b, CMS energy, coal, coal power, Consumers Energy, DTE, DTE Energy, EE&C, energy efficiency, energy efficiency & conservation, energy waste reduction, fossil fuels, fossil gas, Gretchen Whitmer, LIHEAP, LMI, low to moderate income, low-income, maddy kamalay, michigan, michigan department of health and human services, michigan public service commission, MPSC, Nat Zorach, natural gas, the war on coal, WAP, weatherization assistance program, why is DTE so bad

At an MPSC workgroup meeting this morning on Energy Waste Reduction specifically for the low to moderate income (LMI) market

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Policy Energy Midwest Utilities

Better Utility Regulation: How We Can Get Out Of This Mess

August 16, 2021September 14, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments 2021 detroit floods, CFPB, challenge coastal chauvinism, climate change, CMS, coal, Consumers Energy, detroit floods, DTE, DTE Energy, EIA, energy information administration, energy waste reduction, EWR, extreme weather, investor-owned utilities, IOU, IOUs, maryland, michigan utility regulation, MPSC, municipalization, on-bill financing, PG&E, rainfall, Regulation, regulatory innovation, rulemaking process, SAIDI, SAIDI-MED, SAIFI, SNAP!, utilities

Too much regulation restricts innovation. But too little regulation does the same, and this is what we see in the crumbling infrastructure of Michigan, where regulators are asleep at the wheel in the name of a “business-friendly regulatory” environment that, as it turns out, is neither terribly regulatory nor terribly business-friendly.

Bye, Coal-icia! Consumers Energy Advances Decarbonization Goals

June 23, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments campbell, clean coal, CMS, coal, coal power, coal power plant, coal retirement, Consumers Energy, decarbonization, demand response, DTE Energy, economic dispatch, essexville, fossil fuels, IRP, jackson, jackson michigan, karn, ludington, ludington pumped storage, merit order, mid-merit, noneconomic dispatch, retirement of fossil fuels, the war on coal, utility planning, west michigan

Jackson, Michigan-based Consumers Energy (NYSE: CMS) made a groundbreaking announcement in a press conference this morning that it is ditching

Utilities Ecology

Consumers Energy: Bests DTE And Even Saves Endangered Turtles

June 18, 2021June 17, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments amphibians, animals, bees, carbon, carbon footprint, carbon sequestration, Consumers Energy, creatures, DTE, DTE Energy, ecological restoration, ecology, endangered species, friendly amphibians, friends, GHG, ghg mitigation, greenhouse gas emissions, herp gang, herp squad, herpetology, nature, pipeline, pipelines, pollinators, prairie, prairie grasses, saginaw pipeline, stranded assets, testudine, turtles, wetland restoration, wetlands

Endangered turtles return to restored wetlands along a new fossil gas pipeline that cuts through mid-Michigan.

Energy Efficiency Construction Housing Rural Issues

Durable, Illiquid, Efficient, and Thoroughly Unsexy: Building Envelopes vs. Climate Change

April 30, 2021April 30, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments 1837 border war, air conditioning efficiency, air source heat pump, amy ellsworth, building retrofit, buildings and housing workgroup, cadmus group, carbon footprint, CDD, climate change, climate zones, CMS, consulting industrial complex, Consumers Energy, decarbonization, DNR, DTE, DTE Energy, EGLE, electrification, energy usage intensity, environment great lakes and energy, EUI, HDD, heat pump, illiquid, insulation, insulation retrofit, jeannette lezaks, jeremy kraft, Leila Mekias, liquidity, mary templeton, michigan council on climate solutions, Michigan DNR, Michigan EGLE, michigan saves, mini-split, mr. slim, residential energy, retrofit, SEER, slipstream, split system heat pump, spray foam, TRC companies, uppco, Upper Peninsula, wsp, Yooper, yoopers

Building envelope retrofits aren’t very flashy. But they’re a crucial way to address the climate crisis.

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

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