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Consumers Energy has been a vocal opponent of electric choice, which would allow outside competitors to offer energy to Michigan customers.

(CITIZEN PATRIOT FILE PHOTO)

JACKSON, MI – More than 200 Consumers Energy jobs would be lost if Michigan's electric market is open to full competition, company officials say.



The Jackson-based utility has been a vocal opponent of state Rep. Mike Shirkey's electric competition bill, which would allow all customers to choose another energy provider. Besides losing jobs, utility officials said they would have to sell power plants and quality would suffer if the electric market were open to competition.

“We have 800 utility generation-related jobs across the state,” said David Mengebier, Consumers Energy’s senior vice president and chief compliance officer. “We know those jobs would go away here in Jackson County.”

Shirkey’s House Bill 5184 would remove the 10 percent cap on electric choice, allowing outside competitors to go head-to-head with incumbent utilities Consumers Energy and DTE Energy. Current law limits alternative suppliers to 10 percent of the market, a cap that was met by the end of 2009.

Consumers officials say electric deregulation will lead to these competitors manipulating prices and making the market volatile and unreliable for customers.

Shirkey and Consumers Energy officials disagree on how electric deregulation would work in Michigan.

Mengebier said the more than 200 jobs that could be lost in Jackson County include those in environmental services, information technology, accounting and the core business of buying fuel.

“It would not be in the interest of our community,” Mengebier said. “It’s certainly not in the best interest of our customers.”

Consumers Energy officials also claim they would have to sell power plants under Shirkey’s bill, but Shirkey said that claim is false. His legislation would require large utilities with at least 1 million customers to submit plans to the state to either sell off those plants or transfer them to a non-regulated affiliate.

If the bill were to pass, “we would slash our costs and we would not worry so much about value,” Mengebier said. “We would not be able to do a lot of things we’ve been doing in the last few years in Jackson County as the company has become more financially healthy.”