- Mike Rogers claims Abdul El-Sayed supports a ‘energy tax” that would raise utility bills and gas prices
- Cost estimates stem from a clean energy law El-Sayed didn’t help pass and a carbon tax he proposed in 2018.
- El-Sayed hasn’t proposed a carbon tax in his Senate campaign, and researchers disagree on clean energy’s impact on costs.
Michigan Republican US Senate candidate Mike Rogers claims Democratic opponent Abdul El-Sayed supports a new energy tax that would increase utility costs by $2,000 a year and gasoline by 20 cents per gallon.
Rogers made those claims at a Sunday rally with President Donald Trump and in multiple campaign ads, including a new commercial released this week.
The claims are not based on any current proposal from El-Sayed. Instead, they are based on a state-level carbon tax he proposed when running for governor in 2018 and his past support for the Green New Deal, which did not pass Congress.
The $2,000 cost estimate comes from an analysis of a Michigan clean energy law El-Sayed played no role in passing.
Claims about El-Sayed’s energy plans are among several that Bridge Michigan is fact-checking ahead of the Nov. 3 election, including claims that Rogers owns two yachts. The winner will succeed retiring Democrat Gary Peters.
The claims
In a speech prior to Trump taking the stage in Port Huron, Rogers accused El-Sayed of supporting “a new energy tax that will increase — think of this — utility bills by $2,000 a year and add 20 cents per gallon in the cost of gasoline.”
“That’s not affordability, people. That’s a screw you,” Rogers added.
Rogers made similar claims in TV ads, including a commercial that also argues Michigan utility bills are high “because of the Green New Deal supported by Abdul El-Sayed.” It suggests the Democrat would cause more price hikes with a “national energy tax.”
The facts
The claim that gas prices will increase appears to be based on a carbon tax proposed by El-Sayed when he ran for governor in 2018. He called for creation of a “corporate polluter fee” on companies for carbon emissions and to give “the money back to Michiganders.”
The 20 cents per gallon figure cited by Rogers comes from a 2013 study commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers, which projected that gas prices would increase by 20 cents per gallon if a carbon tax were to be implemented in Michigan.
El-Sayed has not proposed a carbon tax as part of his 2026 US Senate campaign, but he does generally support clean energy initiatives and previously voiced support for the Green New Deal, some versions of which included new taxes and fees on the fossil fuel industry.
The $2,000 energy tax figure claimed by Rogers appears to stem from a Mackinac Center for Public Policy analysis of clean energy policies under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
The analysis concluded that requiring energy utilities to derive 60% of their electricity from wind and solar by 2035 would increase average residential rates by $2,000 a year by 2035.
El-Sayed played no role in creating the law, but his support for 100% clean energy goals was cited by the Sierra Club and Clean Water Action for endorsing his candidacy.
“We need 100% renewable energy, and we need it yesterday,” El-Sayed said in June.
Asked about the claims, El-Sayed’s campaign noted he isn’t calling for a carbon tax as he runs for US Senate. A spokesperson also questioned the Mackinac Center study, noting the think tank’s conservative donors, including the Charles Koch Institute and foundations connected to the DeVos family.
Other researchers dispute the claim that renewable energy is to blame for increased prices, including researchers at MIT who found that utility-scale wind and solar projects lowered consumer energy prices. The MIT researchers noted, however, that rooftop solar projects tended to raise electricity prices due to higher network operation and maintenance costs.
In a statement to Bridge Michigan, the Rogers campaign said El-Sayed is “deceptively” supporting utility rate increases. “He’ll hide that he supported raising your gas prices 20 cents a gallon. Just like he supports the Green New Deal but won’t tell you it’ll mandate costly electric vehicles,” Rogers spokesperson Alyssa Brouillet wrote.
Bottom line
El-Sayed called for a state carbon tax when running for governor in 2018, but he hasn’t done so during his current campaign for US Senate.
While he had no role in the state’s clean energy goals, there’s no dispute that El-Sayed has supported clean energy policies that some researchers contend would increase costs.
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