Across the country, private utility companies are quietly funding what appear to be grassroots organizations to block cities from switching to publicly owned power. The strategy represents a coordinated effort to protect billions in annual revenue as communities grow increasingly frustrated with high bills, unreliable service, and slow progress on renewable energy.
Ann Arbor, Michigan offers a textbook example of the tactic. The Ann Arbor Responsible Energy Coalition presents itself as a local citizens' group opposing a municipal power campaign in the city of 123,000. But state filings reveal its mailing address: One Energy Plaza, headquarters of DTE Energy, the private utility that controls the local grid.
Campaign finance records tell a starker story. The coalition received nearly $2 million from DTE, its contractors, the utility industry's main lobbying group, and consultants who have orchestrated similar front operations in other states. None of the money came from Ann Arbor residents. Despite the funding source, the group's literature and ads make no mention of DTE or industry backing.
The coalition's materials warn residents that public power would saddle the city with $1 billion in debt and spike electricity rates by 40 percent. Those figures come from a study funded by DTE itself, according to public power advocates, who point to an independent analysis commissioned by Ann Arbor that estimated costs at roughly $300 million and predicted quick rate reductions.
The financing structure reveals the scale of utility industry concern. Public power systems across the country average 14 percent lower rates than private utilities, primarily because public companies don't need to generate profits for Wall Street investors. For a utility like DTE, municipalization would mean losing an entire revenue stream.
"If Ann Arbor stops paying them for electricity, that cuts into their profit margin, so obviously they oppose it," said Sean Higgins, president of Ann Arbor for Public Power, the campaign pushing for a November ballot measure on municipalization.
The pattern extends far beyond Michigan. Similar front groups have emerged in Florida, where the Clearwater Energy Alliance and Pinellas Energy Alliance are fighting public power efforts in two cities with a combined population of 400,000. A Tampa Bay Times investigation traced those operations to a Democratic strategist and utility consultant named Willy Ritch, who runs the Salt Public Affairs firm and appears to have orchestrated comparable campaigns in Maine and San Diego.
Ritch's firm recently donated $54,000 to the Ann Arbor coalition, linking the far-flung operations. The investigations also uncovered shared phone numbers, nearly identical language in campaign materials, and matching email addresses across front groups in different states.
The industry's tactics sometimes cross into the unusual. In St. Petersburg, Florida, utilities allegedly recruited canvassers from the parking lots of plasma donation centers, targeting people in immediate financial need. The approach fueled suspicion rather than persuasion, according to advocates monitoring the campaigns.
DTE did not respond to questions about funding the Ann Arbor coalition but released a statement saying it agreed with the group's opposition to municipalization. "The path of a city takeover of the electric system will only serve to put a financial strain on Ann Arbor," a company spokesperson said.
When confronted about its DTE connection in a social media statement, the Ann Arbor coalition acknowledged that "DTE helped get this legal entity set up" but insisted it was complying with all campaign finance rules. The group later changed its mailing address from a corporate office in Washington to a local post office box, removing the most obvious sign of industry control from its public materials.
Yousef Rabhi, a former state representative who now leads Ann Arbor for Public Power and is running for mayor, views the coalition as confirmation that public power poses a genuine threat. "DTE has so many front groups that I've lost count by now," Rabhi said. "The fact that they're fighting so hard should be an indication to Ann Arbor voters that we're doing the right thing."
Approximately 2,000 public power companies operate across the United States, many with track records of superior reliability and lower rates. Most states allow municipalities to seize control of private utility grids, though the process is lengthy, expensive, and faces vigorous legal resistance from incumbent utilities. Maine voters rejected public power in a 2023 statewide measure, a victory the industry attributes partly to the front-group campaign that may now be recycled elsewhere.
Author James Rodriguez: "When a corporation bankrolls a fake grassroots campaign and denies it's doing so, then pretends compliance with paperwork absolves the deception, that's not transparency, that's contempt for voters."
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