Several weeks ago, our own Greg McNeilly wrote in the Detroit News about the effect corporate cronyism is having on the price Michiganders pay at the electric meter.

DTE and Consumers Energy last year raised rates on families by $364 million a year, and are back again with hundreds of millions more in planned rate hikes.  At the same time, the monopoly energy providers have spent over $4 million pushing Senate Bill 437 – the Nofs-Nesbitt energy plan—in the state legislature trying to outlaw electric choice.

Not surprisingly, a couple former lawmakers came to the utilities defense, claiming calls of “corporate cronyism” are “just a distraction.”