Gerard Anderson on energy resilience
From Policy Talks @ the Ford School: Gerry Anderson on energy policy and Michigan's economic recovery · · University of Michigan
“The Texas event, I'll spend a minute on that, frankly, that was an event that many of us have simply wondered when it's going to happen. For a couple of reasons. They had a cold weather scare a decade ago and a lot of them told them, you better harden your systems for cold weather and they didn't. Much of the issues down there, gas wells freezing and power plants not conditioned for cold weather. They will have those, now. You see that moving through the Texas legislature, but that was part of the issue. Another part of issue was they had a deregulated market where they count on scarcity pricing to drive reliability investments. Many of us have seriously questioned that construct as well and the $10,000 residential electric bills that people got was all a product of deregulated market where marketers can pass through the price spike to homeowners.”
On , Gerard Anderson, Former Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at DTE Energy, spoke about energy resilience during Policy Talks @ the Ford School: Gerry Anderson on energy policy and Michigan's economic recovery on University of Michigan.
About Gerard Anderson
In an April 2021 appearance at the Ford School, former DTE Chairman and CEO Gerry Anderson discussed energy policy and Michigan's economic recovery from COVID-19. Anderson stated that the utility industry is "desirous of trying to establish what we call an ambitious, but technically grounded clean energy standard," and said the industry favors such a standard over a carbon fee because a fee "doesn't necessarily correlate to a known carbon reduction." He noted that DTE announced in early 2017 a plan to reduce carbon emissions 80% and retire its coal plants, and described the reaction as "overwhelmingly positive." Anderson also addressed the Texas power crisis, attributing high residential bills to a deregulated market where "marketers can pass through the provider spikes to homeowners." He distinguished between rates and bills, saying DTE has "relatively high rates and relatively low bills" due to lower electricity usage in Michigan. Anderson also reflected on the pandemic's impact, predicting that reduced business travel would be a "permanent change for the better in terms of lower energy use," while noting that home energy use had risen and was "likely to be permanent, too." He served as co-chair of the Michigan Economic Recovery Council, which was tasked with forming a reopening plan during the pandemic.