Renewable-energy advocates say utilities have too much influence over the officials that regulate them, and that a proposed ballot measure could help change that.

In 2022, Michigan’s largest utility, DTE, donated to 138 of Michigan’s 148 legislators. Sean McBrearty says that’s too much.

McBrearty is with Michiganders for Money Out of Politics, the group behind a ballot initiative that would ban Michigan utilities and contractors from donating to the politicians that regulate them.

He said these donations give politicians an incentive to kill legislation utilities don’t like, including some that would help renewables take off in Michigan.

“Take an issue like community solar. There’s been strong bipartisan support for that in Lansing for a long time. It doesn’t get passed because DTE and Consumers don’t want it.”

DTE describes itself as the state’s “renewable energy leader,” and Consumers touts renewable-energy projects including its Solar Gardens program, which customers can buy into.

But both utilities have fought proposals that would make it easier for third parties to generate electricity, sometimes making dubious claims about them. Critics say the power companies’ motivation is more about hanging onto their share of the market than protecting ratepayers.

Denise Keele, executive director of the Michigan Climate Action Network, said utilities have convinced lawmakers to vote against bills that could help make Michigan’s grid more reliable.

“When we add renewables to the grid, it stabilizes, makes it more reliable. This is very contrary to some of the mis- and disinformation that’s out there, that oil and gas are the only sort of stable sources.”

The reliability of Michigan’s grid has been a hot topic among residents. One nonprofit group released a report in December ranking Michigan’s grid as the worst in the Midwest when it came to the duration of outages per customer.