Trump Denies Aid for Northern Michigan Ice Storm, Puts Politics Over Recovery

Lansing, Mich. – In the wake of a catastrophic ice storm that devastated northern Michigan in March, the Trump administration last week denied Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s urgent appeal for storm recovery assistance for individuals and public utilities.

While President Trump is busy building a $300 million ballroom and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is paying $172 million in taxpayer dollars for a pair of Gulfstream jets, the administration’s denial of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding will leave thousands of Michigan residents holding the bag for more than $300 million in storm recovery costs.

“It is nothing short of outrageous that President Trump and FEMA have denied federal financial assistance for northern Michigan’s ice storm recovery, forcing thousands of Michigan families to pay for storm-related costs out of their own pockets,” said Abby Cox, Climate Power State Director.“Without additional federal aid, Michigan residents in the impacted areas will be paying off these unprecedented storm expenses for years if not decades to come.”

One co-operative electric utility in northern Michigan has already been forced to put a $20 per month surcharge on every electric bill and estimates that their 35,000 members will now have to pay as much as $4,500 each to recover more than $150 million spent by the utility after the March ice storm destroyed nearly 100% of the electric infrastructure across the utility’s nine-county service area.

“Trump is barreling forward with his false energy emergency forcing Michiganders pay for keeping outdated coal plants online while at the same time denying much needed federal aid for a true emergency from storms that decimated energy infrastructure for thousands of northern Michiganders,” said Bentley Johnson, federal government affairs director for the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. “Without this critical storm recovery assistance, northern Michigan ratepayers will be left paying for recovery costs from the March ice storm and the result will be massive rate hikes at a time when our bills are already too damn high.”

Following the March storm, Gov. Whitmer requested a federal major disaster declaration, which normally would open the door to tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in federal assistance through FEMA. President Trump approved the federal declaration and announced on social media that he had authorized $50 million in financial assistance to the devastated area, an amount that pales in comparison to the actual cost of recovery from the storm, which is already more than $300 million for just two of the impacted utilities in northern Michigan.

In August, FEMA denied Michigan’s request for additional funds from the federal agency’s Individual Assistance (IA) program, which reimburses families for the cost of storm repairs, and Category F assistance, which reimburses public utilities for their storm recovery costs. Gov. Whitmer appealed the denial, and her appeal was again denied by FEMA last week.

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