...Customer Choice Coalition officials questioned how long the residential rate increase will be just 2 percent. They said rates will rise 5 percent in November, when customers no longer get a credit on their bill for part of the proceeds of Consumers Energy's sale of a nuclear plant, and another 5 percent in March when customers no longer get a credit for decommissioning another plant.

The PSC said the speculation has no merit. Others said it is not uncommon for credits and surcharges to be added and dropped from customers' bills. Detroit Edison, a subsidiary of DTE Energy Co., has a pending rate case before the commission.

DTE and Consumers, you'll remember, are the utilities House Democrats and Jennifer Granholm are attempting to grant permanent monopolies of the energy market in Michigan.  Some business groups have been reluctant to slam the anti-competition idea because they're hoping it will lead to an end of those pesky subsidy programs.  

With the PSC moving away from them that argument is going to lose a little steam although its certainly understandable that many would like to see the inequitable pricing stricken from the law.  The answer, though, certainly is not to grant a monopoly to the two largest utilities while simultaneously ending said subsidies.

If Consumers is asking for 4% increases this time, will likely ask for the same (or more) the next time they're before the PSC and rate credits are set to expire, you toss in a new Big Energy monopoly and Michiganders are going to get a lump of coal in their stockings come this Christmas.  

Which would actually be a good thing.  All of the residents who have their power cut off because they can no longer afford the exorbitant prices can burn the coal for warmth.  And like the Detroit Free Press opines... `you haven't lived in Michigan' until you've roasted chestnuts over a coal fire built for warmth.

And just because that's not enough awesome news this morning the Western Michigan Business Review caught up with the head of Holland Based Herman Miller at a big conference and spoke with him about projections for west Michigan's furniture industry.  

(CEO Brian) Walker tempers his view by noting that rapidly rising commodity prices and record-high energy costs make the business environment, and an accurate outlook, all the more challenging.

"We're seeing things we haven't seen in a generation," he said. "Right now, it's an extremely difficult picture to forecast."

The recently updated quarterly outlook from the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association forecasts a 6.8 decline in North American shipments this year, to $10.6 billion, followed by a subsequent 6.3 percent shipment decline in 2009, to $10.0 billion.

The optimistic view he's `tempering' with those warnings?'  That the furniture industry is entering a moderate downturn.  That's the good news.

And we're left to shake our heads and hope that voters across the country are paying attention to what tax and spend policies have wrought in Michigan.  If they like what the Granholm / Cherry / Dillon / Schauer tax hike did to the Great Lakes State just wait until they see what that giant Obama-proposed hike does nationally.