(WXYZ) — Frustration spilled out Monday night at 2 town hall meetings. The anger was directed at DTE.
“Why can't we, the people file a God dang class action lawsuit and sue 'em,” one resident said during a meeting at Westland City Hall.
"I lost 3 days of wages thanks to DTE,” said another.
The event was hosted by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib after thousands of metro Detroiters went days without power last month.
Connie Mitchell of Inkster says she was spared from last month’s ice storm, but last summer spent days without power.
“It's beginning to be a pattern,” Mitchell said. “There's gotta be some relief for us, this is unfair to the people paying the bills.”
In Commerce Township, State Senator Jim Runestad was also hosting a town hall on outages.
Representatives from DTE and Consumers Energy did not show up at either event.
“It's just a constant plague of power outages," one resident said during the town hall. "It doesn't matter if it’s Winter, Summer, Spring, Fall, we get those issues.”
Many residents were also upset that DTE is requesting a 14% rate hike, which the company says will help them make improvements to the grid.
In a statement, DTE President Trevor Lauer said “We hear the concern from our customers. When an historic ice storm struck our state, 20 percent of them were left without power. Our customers deserve better, which is why we need to continue to invest to improve the reliability of our electric grid in the face of increasingly severe storms. We look forward to continue working with our state, federal and local leaders to achieve our shared goal of improving reliability, delivering cleaner energy and maintaining affordability for our customers.”
“This monopoly has grown too big, too powerful,” Senator Runestad said during his town hall.
“Investor-owned utilities like DTE will always put profits over our people they’re supposed to serve,” Rep. Tlaib told the crowd during her town hall.
The event in Westland included calls for action, passing around a petition for a law to change the credits DTE gives customers. Residents hoping their voices were heard and the events spark change.
"I think they will," Mitchell said."If we let our Representatives know how we think and they take that to the House and the Senate and State Legislature, they’ve got to listen to the people.”
The Michigan Public Service Commission town hall will be next Monday, March 20 from 5:30 to 8:00 pm at Dearborn Fordson High School. There will also be a virtual town hall the following evening the 21st, at 6:00 pm.
