MI-MAUI represents local governments and other public agencies served by investor-owned utilities throughout Michigan, addressing municipal government costs and operations impacted by utilities as well as local policy objectives including energy affordability, reliability, security and climate change or clean energy goals.

Key government operations issues include:

• Street lighting: monthly tariffs and costs of LED conversions; outage response, prevention and credits; lighting quality, light pollution and light trespass.
• Utility tariffs and utility practices affecting municipal buildings, water treatment plants, etc.;
• Solar PV and other distributed generation installations at government facilities;
• Coordination of utility distribution system projects with local government infrastructure  and economic development projects. Examples include coordination of utility projects with local road or water and sewer projects, and coordination of planned electric system improvements with local government economic development plans, EV infrastructure buildout, etc.
• Communication and coordination between utilities and local governments during outages and other emergencies.

Key policy issues include:

• Electric reliability: making zip- or census-tract reliability data available to local governments to promote utility accountability and responsiveness; bill credits for repetitive or lengthy outages; reliability-based financial incentives and disincentives for utilities.
• Energy affordability and security: protecting vulnerable and low-income residents from unfair rates, service shutoffs and unsustainable financial burdens.
• Utility data: provision of data to local governments in support of policy making, program planning and implementation. Examples include data on energy use and costs needed for local government social services and climate or clean energy goals.

While focused primarily on energy issues, MI-MAUI can address any issue of concern to its members that falls within the Michigan Public Service Commission’s regulatory purview. MI-MAUI can also provide policy analysis and regulatory navigation advice to members.

MI-MAUI does not lobby for laws or policies but may provide research and analysis to other organizations that lobby on behalf of municipalities.