Morgan Introduces Legislation to Expand Home Energy Freedom, Lower Costs for Michigan Families
LANSING, Mich., Sept. 24, 2026 — State Rep. Jason Morgan (D-Ann Arbor) introduced commonsense legislation today to take on monopoly utility power, lower energy bills for Michigan families and give homeowners the freedom to power their own homes.
The Home Energy Freedom Act targets state regulations that restrict residential clean energy generation. By lifting arbitrary state caps on rooftop solar, the bill empowers families, farmers and small businesses to cut their monthly energy bills and break free from relentless utility rate hikes.
For many homeowners, the current policy raises a simple question: Why does state law limit how much clean energy a family is allowed to generate on its own property?
The answer, Morgan said, is a product of decades of utility influence over Michigan energy policy. Monopoly utilities successfully lobbied for restrictions on distributed generation that limit how much electricity customers can generate themselves, protecting utility revenues while leaving families dependent on the grid.
“Michiganders are getting crushed by rising electric bills while monopoly utility companies like DTE rake in massive profits,” Morgan said. “It is completely absurd that state law legally blocks a family from generating enough electricity on their own roof to switch off expensive gas heating or escape pain at the pump. If you are investing your own money to put solar on your roof, you should be able to install enough panels to make that investment worthwhile, and the utilities should get out of the way.”
Under current Michigan law, residential distributed generation systems generally cannot be designed to produce more than 110% of a customer’s electricity consumption during the previous 12 months. Because that limit is based on past electricity use, it can prevent families from installing enough solar to meet future energy needs, like those that could come from installing a high-efficiency electric heat pump or buying an electric vehicle.
“These caps were cooked up by utility lobbyists to protect monopoly profits and keep families buying their power from the utility,” Morgan said. “The system is rigged when a monopoly utility can use its political power to limit how much energy a family can generate on its own roof. This bill is about changing those rules, putting more power back in the hands of Michigan families, putting money back in their pockets, ending a senseless monopoly roadblock, and giving Michiganders true freedom over their energy future.”
House Bills 6385 and 6386 amend the Clean and Renewable Energy and Energy Waste Reduction Act to nearly triple Michigan’s distributed generation cap from 110% to 300% of a customer’s previous annual electricity consumption. This change would allow households and small businesses to produce more of their own power through small-scale systems and ensure they can send unused electricity back to the grid, making it more affordable to invest in solar.
The Home Energy Freedom Act is part of a broader legislative agenda by Michigan Democrats to give working families more control over their energy costs, including efforts to expand community solar, make rooftop solar more accessible and increase accountability for Michigan’s monopoly utilities.
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