Jocelyn Benson, Dana Nessel Discuss Rising Energy Costs, Slam James for Unnecessary Price Hikes

Today, Secretary of State and Democratic nominee for Governor Jocelyn Benson joined Attorney General Dana Nessel for a roundtable discussion in Detroit about the growing cost of energy and everything else, from gas to groceries, and what the next governor can do to deliver relief.

As governor, Jocelyn will immediately get to work bringing down costs for Michigan families. She is the only candidate in this race with a real plan to lower the cost of healthcare, housing, and energy bills. As governor, she will stop profit-driven rate hikes by utility companies, slash heating and cooling costs by launching a statewide program to weatherize aging homes, and hold providers accountable for shutoffs. Meanwhile, her opponent John James has been voting in Congress for Trump’s price-hiking agenda — raising the cost of everything from the housing market, to healthcare, to the prices at the gas pump. Michiganders deserve a governor who brings down their costs and works for them, not for Donald Trump.

“For me, being the Attorney General, you are the top consumer advocate in the state, and you have the unique ability to intervene in any cases involving rate hikes by utilities…and what I've seen is this is just a broken system. It's not working, and it's pricing people out of all kinds of things,” said Attorney General Dana Nessel. “Practically every single solitary thing that we've been asking the legislature to do, and that we've been asking the Michigan Public Service Commission to do, is literally in [Jocelyn’s] plan…I'm so excited for [Jocelyn] to be governor, and to actually do this stuff.”

“We're here to talk about how we need leaders all across this state who will fight to take on the corruption that is getting in the way of progress and driving up costs, and not doing what we need to do,” said Jocelyn Benson. “Our campaign is about three things: costs down, wages up, end corruption. In order to drive down costs in our utility market, we have to end the corruption that has allowed these costs to go up unabated, without accountability.”

###