Ann Arbor for Public Power held a Climate Week Block Party Sunday from 3-6 p.m. at Liberty Plaza, drawing dozens of community members, students and local officials to rally around environmental action and public energy ownership.
A2P2 partnered with a number of local and statewide organizations for the event, including Michigan Climate Action Network, the University of Michigan’s American Civil Liberties Union, Michigan League of Conservation Voters and Mop Up Michigan. The block party was advertised as a family-friendly event, featuring speakers — including state Rep. Jason Morgan, D-Ann Arbor, and Washtenaw County Commissioner Yousef Rabhi — storytellers, live music from musical group Solidarity Songs and food from Pilar’s Tamales.
During the event, several speakers condemned the Trump administration’s attacks on renewable energy and the approval of a data center in Ypsilanti which will be built in collaboration with the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Many people told stories of struggles with DTE energy , citing frequent outages, and rate hikes. Speakers also voiced complaints about Consumers, another utilities company.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Madison Goff, Southeast Michigan volunteer coordinator for Mop Up Michigan — an organization pushing to end donations from large corporations and government contractors in Michigan politics — said that energy companies were using corporate lobbying to hurt customers.
“In Michigan, we don’t have any laws against corporate lobbying, so we want to make sure that our regulated monopoly utilities like DTE or Consumers aren’t influencing or gaming the system in their favor,” Goff said. “Which I would say they are, considering that DTE just came back for a second rate increase in less than a six-month time frame.”
In an interview with The Daily, LSA junior Hannah Baker, organizing chair for the University’s chapter of ACLU, said her organization shares a common purpose with A2P2 in uplifting the voices of the people.
“We have a similar goal of looking at civil liberties, getting that public power and raising up the power of people’s voices,” Baker said. “By working these events, we can address our interest in the intersection between civil liberties and climate justice, and also raise awareness of this issue related to DTE in the Ann Arbor community.”
Near the stage for the event, attendees could contribute to two paintings at an art station, with one of the paintings depicting wind turbines over a pastoral scene and the other depicting a data center flanked by air and water pollution.
Morgan highlighted some of the efforts he is putting in to address environmental concerns, including legislation to ban political contributions from utility companies, a ratepayer bill of rights and efforts to improve government accountability standards.
“I have put forward legislation to hold our utilities accountable in the state legislature through multiple packages of bills,” Morgan said. “We’re trying to tackle it from every possible angle we can.”
As the block party drew to a close, Rabhi delivered an impassioned speech condemning corporate influence over public institutions and emphasizing the importance of municipalized power, calling for stronger, local organized action.
“Money in politics is a disease,” Rabhi said. “It is one of the most undemocratic things that exists in our system. It is what allows the rich to hold their power and to not give it up. What this ballot measure is trying to say is we’re going to peel that back.”
Rabhi also spoke of the urgency of structural change, referencing his soon-to-be-born child.
“I think about my childhood, I think about winters, I think about stable climate and I think about the future — and I don’t know if my son will be able to ever experience that,” Rabhi said. “But the reality is we still have the power to change course, but what it’s going to take is not half-ass measures.”
Daily Staff Reporter Brady Middlebrook can be reached at pmbrady@umich.edu.
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