Michigan House Energy Policy Committee hearing January 16, 2018

From WLNS 6

Skubick: Customers come to Capitol to speak out against DTE

By Tim Skubick
January 16, 2018

Skubick: Customers come to Capitol to speak out against against DTE

LANSING, Mich (WLNS) – They were using words such as “bullies, terrorists, and monsters” to describe the conduct of DTE energy regarding the installation of smart meters to measure your energy consumption.

One person described DTE’s conduct as “terrorists” while another said they were “malicious, aggressive, unfair”.

DTE lobbyist Rodney Cole, Jr said he believes the utilities are doing the best job they can right now.

The House Energy Committee took testimony from disgruntled DTE customers regarding the utilities behavior on installing smart meters.

Many consumers don’t want them.

Customer Dan Schulte agreed to the meter and describes what happened then. “I allowed them to put the meter in and then they cut the power and laughed about it.”

Schulte called the utility “monsters”.

Senator Patrick Colbeck accuses the utilities of bullying. “It is. They bring out four trucks and try to intimidate these people. It’s not right.”

State Rep. Gary Glenn said “after the kind of testimony I heard today and I have no reason not to believe them. I don’t understand why DTE and Consumers would continue to allow this to happen.”

“We take customer complaints very seriously,” insisted Rodney Cole, Jr., the DTE lobbyist.

The utility is preparing a report on this issue.

So when this reporter asked if these people are over-reacting, Cole answered, “there’s some additional information that we’ll be able to provide. This is something we’ve tried to educate the public on.”

The committee will consider a measure to give consumers a choice to use the meters or not.

Skubick: Customers come to Capitol to speak out against against DTE

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