DTE Energy, one of the state’s largest energy providers, said it is set to offer buyouts to around 3,000 employees — about 30% of its staff.
The company said the majority of the buyouts — what it called the “voluntary separation incentive program” — is being offered to corporate employees and utility staff.
In a statement, Diana Antishin, DTE’s vice president of human resources and chief diversity and inclusion officer, said that the move was done to “focus on what matters most to our customers: providing increasingly safe, reliable and cleaner energy while keeping their bills affordable.”
Antishin said the company is making “transformational investment” in generation and energy distribution. She said the buyout offers will “enable us to provide new opportunities for our team members to learn, grow and contribute while keeping DTE a great place to work.”
Last year, the Michigan Public Service Commission approved a $368 million energy rate increase for DTE. That amount was about 60% of what the utility had asked for.
Currently, DTE is asking for a gas rate hike of $266 million — its first gas rate increase request since 2021. DTE cited a need to improve and invest in infrastructure. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is intervening in that case. “This is yet another in a continuing string of multi-hundred-million-dollar cases brought by the company,” Nessel said in a statement on Tuesday.
Editor's Note: DTE Energy is one of Michigan Public’s corporate sponsors.
