{"id":6081,"date":"2022-01-19T13:43:33","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T18:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/senatedems.com\/irwin\/?p=6081"},"modified":"2022-01-19T13:43:33","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T18:43:33","slug":"irwin-introduces-legislation-to-lower-michigan-residents-gas-energy-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/2022\/01\/19\/irwin-introduces-legislation-to-lower-michigan-residents-gas-energy-bills\/","title":{"rendered":"Irwin Introduces Legislation to Lower Michigan Residents\u2019 Gas Energy Bills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>LANSING, Mich. (Jan. 19, 2022) \u2014 Sen.&nbsp;<strong>Jeff Irwin<\/strong>&nbsp;(D-Ann Arbor) today introduced legislation to prohibit gas utilities from charging Michiganders for natural gas that was lost and unaccounted for (LAUF) in their rate case applications and\/or rate adjustments.<br \/><br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/legislature.mi.gov\/doc.aspx?2022-SB-0822\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Senate Bill 822<\/a>&nbsp;would lower Michiganders\u2019 energy bills by ending the subsidization of the mistakes, lack of modernization, or weatherization by natural gas utility companies. Under current Michigan law, utility companies are allowed to recover the costs of LAUF gas, forcing consumers to foot the bill for a product commonly lost to old or damaged infrastructure.<br \/><br \/>\u201cIf DTE or Consumers can just pass on the costs for any gas they\u2019ve \u2018lost\u2019, why would they fix their leaks and upgrade their technology or infrastructure?\u201d Sen. Irwin said. \u201cIt doesn&#8217;t make sense why Michiganders are being forced to subsidize these corporations and pay higher rates because of gas leaks. Instead, we should incentivize them to fix their leaks and stop charging us every year for gas that leaks into the atmosphere.\u201d<br \/><br \/>LAUF gas is the difference between the gas counted by the utility company\u2019s system and the gas measured at the consumer\u2019s meter. According to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aga.org\/policy\/state\/natural-gas-state-profiles\/state-info\/unaccounted-for-natural-gas-in-the-utility-system\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">American Gas Association<\/a>, multiple conditions contribute to LAUF gas, including pipeline leaks, variations in temperature and meter reading timings, third-party damage, meter tampering, and\/or when repairs and replacements are done to natural gas pipelines.<br \/><br \/>In 2018, Michigan had the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/documents\/ag\/CUB_of_MI_Utility_Performance_Report_2020_Edition_732684_7.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">10th highest amount of LAUF gas<\/a>&nbsp;in the nation. From April 2020 to March 2021, both&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mi-psc.force.com\/sfc\/servlet.shepherd\/version\/download\/068t000000NidW1AAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Consumers Energy<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mi-psc.force.com\/sfc\/servlet.shepherd\/version\/download\/068t000000NiH5jAAF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DTE<\/a>&nbsp;had more than 4.8 million lost units and were allowed to charge customers $11.6 million and $13.5 million, respectively, to make up for it.<br \/><br \/>\u201cWe need to ensure utilities are doing their part to maintain an updated, functional energy system,\u201d Sen. Irwin added, \u201cWe need to hold companies accountable and incentivize them to fix their leaks rather than bill us every year for the gas lost in the system. Bottom line: my bill ensures that Michigan residents won\u2019t have to keep paying for gas they never get.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LANSING, Mich. (Jan. 19, 2022) \u2014 Sen.&nbsp;Jeff Irwin&nbsp;(D-Ann Arbor) today introduced legislation to prohibit gas utilities from charging Michiganders for natural gas that was lost and unaccounted for (LAUF) in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pr"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.4 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Irwin Introduces Legislation to Lower Michigan Residents\u2019 Gas Energy Bills - Senator Jeff Irwin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/2022\/01\/19\/irwin-introduces-legislation-to-lower-michigan-residents-gas-energy-bills\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Irwin Introduces Legislation to Lower Michigan Residents\u2019 Gas Energy Bills\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LANSING, Mich. (Jan. 19, 2022) \u2014 Sen.&nbsp;Jeff Irwin&nbsp;(D-Ann Arbor) today introduced legislation to prohibit gas utilities from charging Michiganders for natural gas that was lost and unaccounted for (LAUF) in [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/2022\/01\/19\/irwin-introduces-legislation-to-lower-michigan-residents-gas-energy-bills\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Senator Jeff Irwin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-19T18:43:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/2022\/01\/19\/irwin-introduces-legislation-to-lower-michigan-residents-gas-energy-bills\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/2022\/01\/19\/irwin-introduces-legislation-to-lower-michigan-residents-gas-energy-bills\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Irwin Introduces Legislation to Lower Michigan Residents\u2019 Gas Energy Bills\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-19T18:43:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/2022\/01\/19\/irwin-introduces-legislation-to-lower-michigan-residents-gas-energy-bills\/\"},\"wordCount\":356,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Press release\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/2022\/01\/19\/irwin-introduces-legislation-to-lower-michigan-residents-gas-energy-bills\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/2022\/01\/19\/irwin-introduces-legislation-to-lower-michigan-residents-gas-energy-bills\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/2022\/01\/19\/irwin-introduces-legislation-to-lower-michigan-residents-gas-energy-bills\/\",\"name\":\"Irwin Introduces Legislation to Lower Michigan Residents\u2019 Gas Energy Bills - Senator Jeff Irwin\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-19T18:43:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/2022\/01\/19\/irwin-introduces-legislation-to-lower-michigan-residents-gas-energy-bills\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/2022\/01\/19\/irwin-introduces-legislation-to-lower-michigan-residents-gas-energy-bills\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/2022\/01\/19\/irwin-introduces-legislation-to-lower-michigan-residents-gas-energy-bills\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Irwin Introduces Legislation to Lower Michigan Residents\u2019 Gas Energy Bills\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/\",\"name\":\"Senator Jeff Irwin\",\"description\":\"Michigan Senate Democrats\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Irwin Introduces Legislation to Lower Michigan Residents\u2019 Gas Energy Bills - Senator Jeff Irwin","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/2022\/01\/19\/irwin-introduces-legislation-to-lower-michigan-residents-gas-energy-bills\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Irwin Introduces Legislation to Lower Michigan Residents\u2019 Gas Energy Bills","og_description":"LANSING, Mich. 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