President Donald Trump made a decision that’s hurting residents in a stronghold of support that helped propel him to re-election.
The president denied disaster aid Oct. 22 to two electric utilities in rural northern Michigan – where his support has historically run strong since entering politics – that would shift billions of dollars in costs from federal taxpayers to working-class customers who now potentially face thousands of dollars in rate hikes to pay for repairs to the power grid following a three-day ice storm in March, reported Politico.
“It could be tens of millions of dollars left on the backs of the members,” said Allan Berg, the CEO of Presque Isle Electric & Gas, known as PIE&G, in northeastern Michigan.
Great Lakes Energy, in northwestern Michigan, warned on its website that “all storm-related costs not reimbursed by state or federal disaster aid will be paid for by the cooperative’s entire membership.”
Politico’s E&E News obtained documents showing the Trump administration documented $90 million in damage to utility infrastructure, which is about five times the federal threshold to qualify for disaster aid, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency informed Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that assistance was “not warranted.”
That decision “could make the co-op actually go broke if something isn’t done to make them whole again,” said Pete Rose, a retired PIE&G foreman.
The utilities are nonprofit electric cooperatives serving rural areas and owned by customers, and Whitmer notified Trump in August that customers faced at least $4,500 per household in surcharges and rate increases without federal aid.
Trump has denied at least nine gubernatorial disaster requests since April despite FEMA documenting damage that met the federal threshold for aid, and he justified his decision in Michigan using fine print in a way that had never been done before.
“We can’t find a similar disaster where Category F is denied,” said Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI), who represents the area and has asked Trump to reconsider. “This is something nobody asked for. Our members did not want this ice storm. FEMA is a federal program designed to ensure when large natural disasters occur, they can come and make the playing field level.”
The Republican-led state House overwhelmingly approved $100 million in recovery funds in March, but the Democratic-controlled state Senate still has not taken action on the package, showing how disaster response if responsibility was shifted from the federal government to states.
“You look at northern Michigan, it’s a Republican area,” said state Rep. Parker Fairbairn, a Republican who sponsored the bill. “If this would have happened in Detroit or Grand Rapids, I think they would have seen funding from the state already in big numbers.”
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