So the Orange Whale denied disaster aid to two electric utilities in rural Northern Michigan and could cost residents tens of millions of dollars. I’m guessing residents were MAGA voters. Via Politico:
The Oct. 22 denial is a striking example of how Trump’s cuts to disaster aid — and his vow for deeper reductions next year — threaten to shift billions of dollars in costs from federal taxpayers to households struggling to rebuild. In this case, it would hit a working-class region that voted overwhelmingly for the president last year, helping him win the crucial swing state.
Those households could now face thousands of dollars apiece in rate hikes to make up for the costs of rebuilding their communities’ electric grids after a three-day ice storm in March, utility officials and lawmakers warned.
The denial came after the Trump administration documented $90 million in damage to utility infrastructure, according to records obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News. The amount is nearly five times the federal threshold to qualify for disaster aid. But in its October denial letter, the Federal Emergency Management Agency told Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that assistance to the utilities “is not warranted.”
“It could be tens of millions of dollars left on the backs of the members,” said Allan Berg, the CEO of Presque Isle Electric & Gas, known as PIE&G, in northeastern Michigan.
