Michigan regulators granted DTE Gas less than half of the rate increase it asked for, and households on the other end of the meter will still pay more starting this heating season. The Michigan Public Service Commission’s order in Case No. U-21973, issued September 10, 2026, sets a specific dollar figure for what a typical residential customer will see on a monthly bill. The same order raises a low-income credit, adds a second and smaller surcharge for 2027, and was followed within hours by a pointed public statement from Michigan’s attorney general.
Case U-21973 Cuts DTE’s Ask by More Than Half
DTE Gas had asked for a net rate increase of $162.7 million, part of a larger $237.5 million request that included charges already flowing through an existing infrastructure surcharge. The Michigan Public Service Commission did not grant that amount. In Case No. U-21973, the commission approved a net rate increase of $74.52 million, a more than 54% decrease from what the utility sought. The order also set DTE Gas’s allowed return on equity at 9.8%, below the 10.25% the company had requested, on a 50-50 debt-to-equity capital structure instead of the 50.75%-49.25% split DTE Gas proposed. DTE Gas, which delivers natural gas to about 1.4 million customers across Michigan by the company’s own count, is one of the state’s two largest gas utilities alongside Consumers Energy. The commission also rejected a separate $284.1 million request tied to replacing DTE Gas’s aging Taggart Compressor Station, finding the utility’s supporting evidence thin and its discussion of alternatives to the project almost nonexistent; the company will need to make a stronger case before that project can move forward.
Inside the kit: The 5 kinds of property-tax relief, the circuit-breaker credit that includes renters, help with heating, cooling and home repairs, and an application log and renewal calendar. Open The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit.
The Math Behind the $2.87 Increase
The commission’s order attaches its rate decision to a specific usage benchmark rather than a flat dollar amount for every account. A residential customer using 75 ccf (hundred cubic feet) of natural gas in a month, the figure the commission treats as a “typical” customer, will see a monthly increase of $2.87, or 3.34%. Actual bills will move up or down from that benchmark depending on weather, home size and insulation, since gas use in a mild month looks nothing like use in a deep-winter one. The new revenue is directed at continued modernization of DTE Gas’s transmission and distribution system and at rising operations and maintenance costs, not at a single named capital project.
A Second Charge Lands With the New Year
The $2.87 figure is not the only change tied to this case. The commission separately approved an Infrastructure Recovery Mechanism surcharge that adds another 68 cents, or 0.77%, to a typical DTE Gas bill starting January 1, 2027. That mechanism is set at a total annual amount of $340 million for the 2027-2028 period, stepping down to $311.02 million in 2029, $310.13 million in 2030, and $309.04 million in 2031. It pays for replacing aged bare steel pipe, moving customer meters from inside homes to outside, and replacing at-risk pipe in populated areas, work the commission treats separately from the base rate case because it is tied to pipeline safety rather than general operating costs. The commission rejected DTE Gas’s request to fold two additional programs, a corrosion and cathodic protection effort and a regulator station replacement program, into that surcharge, directing the company to seek that money through base rates instead.
The Low-Income Credit Climbs to $58
Buried in the same order is a change aimed at DTE Gas’s lowest-income customers. The commission raised the utility’s Low-Income Assistance Credit for income-eligible customers to $58 a month, up from $40, an amount the commission calculated at roughly 70% of DTE Gas’s proposed average monthly bill. The commission also directed DTE Gas to improve how it explains that credit and its other assistance programs to customers, and to report back on those changes the next time it files a rate case. Separately, the order tells DTE Gas to investigate concerns raised by intervenors about a racial disparity in shutoff rates among its customers, with a report due to the commission by December 30, 2026. The commission also disallowed $17.9 million in fleet costs after finding the company retires vehicles earlier than historical averages without justifying the practice.
Nessel: “This System Is Fundamentally Broken”
The case did not end with the commission’s order. Hours after the decision, DTE Gas told the commission it intends to file another rate increase request in November. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel responded directly, saying that DTE announced its intent “not weeks, not days, but literally hours” after securing this rate hike, “all while Michigan families struggle to keep their homes warm.” Nessel called the pattern a sign that “this system is fundamentally broken, and Michigan ratepayers deserve better,” arguing that ratepayers deserve more from what she described as regulated monopolies and from a commission she said “consistently and predictably splits the difference” between company requests and affordable rates. Her office says it has intervened in every major DTE and Consumers Energy rate case for nearly eight years, work it credits with saving Michigan ratepayers billions of dollars against the increases those utilities originally sought. The intervenors listed in the commission’s own order, including the Michigan Department of Attorney General, the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan, the Michigan Environmental Council and the Utility Workers Union of America Local 223, are the parties whose objections helped cut DTE Gas’s original ask by more than half before the case ever reached a final vote.
A Rate Case on the Monthly Bill
An approved rate case sets a dollar figure and a case number, but it does not sort out which existing property-tax break, exemption or energy-assistance program might already apply to a household’s address. Nothing in the commission’s order points a fixed-income customer toward the paperwork that could offset a few added dollars a month, and the credit increase described above still requires DTE Gas customers to know it exists and apply for it. That gap between an approved increase and the relief a household may already qualify for is where deadlines and eligibility rules tend to get lost.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit is an 11-page kit covering the 5 kinds of property-tax relief, the circuit-breaker credit that includes renters, and heating, cooling and home-repair help.
See the property-tax and heating-cost programs in The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit.
AI-assisted research and drafting; reviewed by an editor.
