Committee hears bill to set 15‑foot vegetation clearance for power lines

The House Energy Committee heard testimony on House Bill 4361, which would amend the statute establishing the Michigan Public Service Commission to add a provision allowing utilities to maintain vegetation up to 15 feet from the outermost portion of an electric conductor.

Sponsor Representative Phil Green told the panel the change is aimed at reducing storm‑related outages and lowering restoration costs. "Allowing the utilities to trim the trees from the ground to the sky to save costs and ensure transmission or distribution line reliability," Green said, describing the bill's core provision.

The bill would add a subsection directing that standards or rules developed under the cited section be designed to permit utilities to maintain vegetation up to 15 feet from the outermost portion of the wire that conducts electricity. Green said the proposal responds to repeated outages in his district caused by falling limbs, compounded by pests such as emerald ash borer and oak wilt.

Kevin Mazur, legal and compliance engineer for Thumb Electric Cooperative, said codifying a 15‑foot standard would align state guidance with what many utilities already treat as industry practice and would help reduce safety risks, restoration time and cost. "Our goal is to provide safe, reliable, and affordable power, and vegetation management is a big part of that," Mazur said. He told the committee Thumb Electric serves about 12,000 members and maintains more than 2,000 miles of line, a configuration he said increases the per‑crew workload in outage response.

Committee members pressed staff and witnesses on implementation details. Mazur described the cooperative's homeowner outreach and consent process: crews and contractors mark trees with paint and an "X," homeowners sign an agreement, and work proceeds. He said compensation for removed trees is uncommon for the nonprofit cooperative and that, in practice, outcomes vary widely by property owner. He also said many rights‑of‑way are governed by prescriptive easements and that easement language often defaults to vague terms such as "safe, reliable, practicable." Mazur said some easements specify 30‑foot corridors (roughly 15 feet from each side of the conductor).

Representative questions covered whether the bill would change existing administrative rules (witnesses said it would primarily codify a practice and aid education with a clear statutory standard), whether the legislation contemplates a vegetation‑management cycle (a multi‑year trimming schedule was discussed but not mandated in the bill), and who has ultimate authority to require removal (witnesses described the interplay of contractor inspection, homeowner agreements and easement language, and called the ultimate authority a "gray area").

No committee vote on House Bill 4361 was recorded during the hearing. The committee proceeded to the next item after oral testimony and a period of questions.

Ending: The committee received written witness cards for Representative Green’s bill from Thumb Electric Cooperative and Consumers Energy (support), as well as other stakeholders; the chair moved on to the next agenda items after testimony.