Michigan cities prevail in dispute with utilities over LED street lights

The Michigan Public Service Commission rejected DTE Energy's proposal to raise rates for LED street lights recently and ordered the utility to engage in talks with the Southeast Michigan Municipal Street Lighting Consortium to arrive at a fair rate. "The MPSC said that the evidence presented and the opinion that the administrative law judge wrote was very persuasive, which sided 100 percent with the testimony and analysis that our coalition presented," says Rick Bunch, executive director of the Southeast Michigan Regional Energy Office, the nonprofit that organized municipal opposition in the case.