Ontario will tariff electricity to MI; Public Service Commission chair doesn't expect big impact

The head of the Michigan Public Service Commission says he doesn’t expect tariffs on electricity imported from Canada to have a huge effect on prices paid by Michigan utilities or consumers.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford told the Fox Business Network on Friday that he will go ahead with plans to impose 25% tariffs on electricity sent to Michigan, New York and Minnesota — despite a last-minute move from President Donald Trump’s to suspend the new tariffs he has been threatening on Mexico and Canada.

Dan Scripps, chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission says he doesn’t expect tariffs to have a huge effect on Michigan ratepayers.

“We have a lot of power that crosses the border from Ontario into Michigan, but very little of it is actually used in Michigan or purchased by Michigan customers or utilities,” Scripps said.

“Because we’re not the end users of the electricity, I would expect that there would be relatively little impact from a price perspective of any sort of retaliatory-type measures.”

Scripps said he would be concerned about a disruption in the flow of electricity through Michigan which he says, could affect electric grid reliability in the U.S. and Canada. That’s because power from Ontario flows through Michigan and into several other states before returning to Canada as part of an electrical grid that reaches central Canada and states east of the Rocky Mountains.

In a statement, Consumers Energy, a major supplier of electricity in Michigan, said it doesn’t import electricity from Canada.