Michigan voters elected leaders to take on energy affordability. Here’s where they should start in 2027.

To: Interested parties
From: Evergreen Action Senior Regional Director Courtney Brady
Date: Thursday, November 5, 2026
Re: Michigan voters elected leaders to take on energy affordability. Here’s where they should start in 2027.

On Election Day, Michigan voters delivered a resounding win for lower energy bills and cleaner power. Jocelyn Benson will be Michigan’s next governor, Eli Savit will be its next attorney general, and Democratic majorities will lead both the House and the Senate. Come January, Michigan will have a government positioned to work together on an ambitious energy agenda. But this election was about more than political victories. Voters expect results, starting with lower energy bills. 

For Michigan families, rising energy costs are no longer an abstract policy debate. They’re a monthly reality, and voters increasingly want to know who’s responsible and what can be done about it. They see an energy system that all too often puts corporate interests ahead of household budgets, with utilities rewarded for spending more on infrastructure, large corporations driving up demand on the grid, and politicians who protect the status quo. However, voters also saw a better way forward—one that puts consumers first, holds utilities accountable, and makes greater use of affordable clean energy. And the candidates who named the problem plainly and offered a credible plan to lower costs earned a mandate to deliver it. 

That mandate demands urgent action. Michigan’s 2023 energy rewrite built the foundation, with a 100 percent clean energy standard, stronger efficiency targets, and a faster path for new wind and solar. If the last democratic trifecta was about setting targets, this one has to be about cutting costs, and the work needs to start now. 

Here’s the agenda Governor-elect Benson and the incoming legislature should pursue in 2027.

Executive Action: What the Governor Can Do From Day One

The governor-elect does not need to wait for a vote to start lowering costs. Appointments, agency direction, and the administration’s influence with regulators are among the strongest tools in state government. Here are three tactics the governor’s office should pursue to lower household energy bills:

• Protect Michigan families from rising data center energy costs: Data centers and other large users are looking to Michigan for sites, incentives, and grid capacity, and the governor should direct state regulators to set firm terms for serving them. Those new large users should bear the cost of generation, transmission, and distribution—not Michigan households or small businesses.
• Hold utilities accountable and lower household energy bills: Utilities earn an allowed profit on the infrastructure they build, which rewards spending more rather than wisely, and families are left holding the bill. Through appointments, a strong legislative agenda, and public direction, the governor can build a commission that stops treating rate hikes as routine: one that challenges capital spending plans, holds profit margins down, and rejects unjustified rate increase requests. The attorney general’s office can also reinforce this work by stepping in on behalf of customers in rate cases.
• Expand transportation choices and maximize taxpayer value: Lowering the cost of living also means giving people more affordable ways to get where they need to go. This starts with appointing a Michigan Department of Transportation director committed to accessibility, safety, and real alternatives to driving. That leader can equip the department to rank projects by what they deliver, including connections to jobs, links between rural Michigan and downtowns, and support for local economies.

Legislative Action: What Lawmakers Should Pass First

The strongest protections are the ones codified into law by the legislature and a governor’s signature. Aligned majorities can pass safeguards that outlast any one administration to serve Michiganders for generations to come. Here’s what the legislature should focus on when the 2027 session convenes:

• Establish strong protections against rising data center energy costs: The legislature should guarantee in state law that the growth of data centers and similar large users does not push up electricity costs for existing customers. Michigan can still welcome responsible development on fair terms, with transparency about energy and water use, and a dedicated revenue stream from the mega corporations driving new demand can fund clean energy and efficiency programs that lower costs across the system.
• Advance energy affordability and utility accountability: Lawmakers should strengthen the standards for how utilities request rate increases and give regulators and the public better tools to challenge unnecessary costs. That way, cost control is built into how utilities operate rather than coming second to corporate earnings. Paired with expanded affordable clean energy options for households and employers, customers would have even more ways to cut what they pay.
• Modernize transportation funding and investment: : Transportation spending should flow to the projects delivering the most benefit, expand access for people of every age and ability, and give residents more affordable ways to reach work, school, health care, and one another. Getting there means reexamining the funding formulas and project selection rules that currently steer money toward a highway-first system.

The Work Starts Now

Michigan has a rare chance to show the country what a government can do when it puts energy affordability and people-focused reforms at the top of the list. A governor, attorney general, and two chambers of the legislature, all elected on a promise to cut costs, can deliver lower bills, cleaner power, and good jobs at the same time—proving that the three go hand in hand. 

Michigan voters chose a cleaner, more affordable future. The work of building it begins now.