Posted on 07/12/2023 5:44:12 AM PDT by george76
DENVER — Xcel Energy customers are sweating the possibility of another rate hike. They're making their opposition known to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) as the agency considers a $45 million electric rate increase.
“They make more than enough money. They don’t need to gouge their customers any further,” said Loren Meaux, an Xcel customer, in a public comment hearing Tuesday.
Xcel originally filed for a $312 million increase to pay for investments in transmission projects and its commitment to meet Colorado greenhouse gas emissions goals. After negotiations with state regulators and consumer advocates, the company dropped the increase to $45 million.
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While Coloradans see energy bills rise, Xcel Energy top executives take home millions in bonuses each year The utility company boasted of record profits at a recent shareholder meeting
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Customers say an increase after Xcel Energy reported $1.74 billion in profits last year doesn’t add up.
“I am a homeowner, I own a 1950ish house. We have made many improvements to try and increase efficiency,” Xcel customer John Spencer said. “As a family with two white collar professionals working well-paying jobs, these rates exceed raises that we get year over year.”
If approved, the $45 million increase would mean about $1.54 more per month on average for households.
“When you add up the rate increase year over year, the impact is significant,” Sara Schueneman with AARP said.
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Xcel Energy, utility leaders face Colorado lawmakers' questions on rising rates For months, energy customers have been sharing stories with Denver7 about sharp increases in their monthly utility bills.
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Negotiations around the current proposal began last year before Xcel’s natural gas rates nearly doubled.
The increase hit in the middle of winter and impacted those trying to heat their homes. The PUC reported that a typical Xcel customer saw a 25% increase in their electric bill and a 75% increase in their gas bill in 2022 compared to the prior year.
Policy advisers are sounding the alarm that Xcel is only raising rates to guarantee investors a return.
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State regulators get 'unprecedented' complaints about Xcel's proposed rate hike Commissioners promise to 'scrutinize this to a degree we've never done before'
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The PUC will have more hearings next week before deciding on the rate hike. You can submit your comments to the PUC.
Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
Colorado is thoroughly Californicated. And it will continue to be so until the population revolts. As in - makes Democrats afraid. Sorry, but datz da way ‘tiz.
Electric rates are going to be going up across the country and the world.
You can’t replace coal plants that were long ago paid for with new ‘Clean’ generation for free.
All of the new generation today also requires new transmission lines because it is located far from existing transmission lines.
Being Green is expensive and your betters are going to make you pay for it.
So choose someone else just like we did here in Neva........oh!? Never mind......🤔⚡
Xcel Energy uses the green agenda (expensive, not reliable.. ) to make a crony fortune at rate payers expense. - high energy costs are due to a high-stakes regulatory “game” being played outside of the public’s view.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4137180/posts
Bingo, we have found the problem! Poor Libs have a complete disconnect from actions have consequences and if you ask government to do something, they will but guest who pays!
If you want abundant and reliable electricity in today’s climate, you are going to have to pay for it.
Most of this additional rate increase is for the construction of hundreds of windmills and acres and acres of solar panels, then to build the natural gas-fired turbines driving electrical dynamos as the back-up supply of power for the times that the wind stops, or the sunlight cannot reach the solar panels (which is just about most of the time in Colorado).
If all that rate increase was just put into clean coal, natural gas-fired, or nuclear powered electrical generation, the costs of electrical power generation would drop so low that it would not even have to be metered for most consumers, just a monthly base charge much like the Internet connection fees or unlimited phone service.
First, pretty much a forgone conclusion that the PUC will approve the rate hike. They almost always do.
Second, just wait until all the utilities across the country start demanding, and getting, major rate hikes to start building the infrastructure for EVs and EV charging. It will bankrupt many and turn people into slaves of the state dependant on government subsidies and government hand-outs. But the planet will be saved and you will own nothing and be happy.
Between that and the new property taxes, your paycheck won’t go as far. Don’t forget to add in inflation.
Jared Schutz Polis’ ( and his husband) goal of 100% renewable energy is to crush working Americans- to freeze in the dark.. with unreliable and expensive energy - that does not work 24-7..
Believe me it is happening everywhere.
The leadership of all of the utility company across the country are running scared of the woke tyrants in Washington and the world (Economic Forum).
They are not going to buck the trends until forced to do so.
So I agree with you that the so-called "green" agenda is making rates go up. But frivolous lawsuits also need to be reigned in.
control its all about control
This is just the start. Maryland BGE did an analysis of what is needed to just expand the distribution system, to meet projected demand once the decarbonization idiocy is implemented. The bill for just distribution improvements was up to 75 billion. No new generation, just the infrastructure to distribute electricity from other states (likely coal produced)
Many of them are crooks. Duke energy here in Florida are absolute crooks and absolute monopoly and government continues to approve rate hikes. Temperature outside change 8 degrees from previous month, NOTHING in house changed r/t usage- we even turn off cable box when not in use to save $ on electricity. Yet our bill increased 100$!! I firmly believe their plan is to punish anyone who doesn’t buy into the green agenda and get solar. We bought a canopy because stupid builder put A/C unit on sunny side and there’s no shade. Hopefully shading with canopy will help 🤞
These eyesores take up vastly more land than a coal plant that would generate the same amount of power.
The wind turbines also take many times the natural resources to produce as would a coal plant.
As history shows socialist governments are far more destructive to the environment than are capitalist
The USSR left vast areas of the nation uninhabitable and barren
When China finally falls I am sure it will have done the same.
I don't know the details about Duke energy in Florida. But I can tell you with Alabama Power at least part of the blame is the federal government. Obama's EPA forced AP to shut down a coal plant and replace it with a "clean burning natural gas" fueled plant. That cost over a beeeelllllyuuuun dollars (typed in my best Trump voice) that they had to pass onto us customers. Then Brandon issued EO's making it harder to drill for natural gas and oil, which made the cost of NG go up. In our power bills there's a rider per kWh specifically to pay for AP's fuel costs (coal, natural gas, uranium). So now that our power bills are more joined to the hip with NG than ever before (thanks to Obama), Brandon's EO made our power bills go up even more.
Bull crap like that is why I had 10kW of solar installed in the 4th month Brandon was in the WH. I studied the real world results for a year, liked it, and increased it to 20kW last year. It shouldn't be like this where we're better off producing our own energy. I can't do it as efficiently with solar as well as a power company can do it with coal if the federal government would let them (partly because coal is better than solar, and partly because of Economies of Scale makes it easier for the utility to get more kWh per dollar than me doing it for just my home).
Except that at least for now the Dims haven't figured out how to regulate the sun that hits our property. I know a lot of FReepers hate solar. But decentralized solar (solar for an individual or family, not for the grid) gives us some cushion against the Dims' stupid war on energy.
You want a new grid and a bigger grid it’s going to cost. But of course nobody wants to pay. Really a buck and a half a month, deal with it guys.
Excellent point. And keep in mind that this is Colorado, where a lot of people don't have A/C and they do they don't run it as much as I'm used to. (Here in Alabama most of people's power consumption is running the A/C in the hot months.) But to be fair to Colorado folks complaining about Xcel's power rates going up, Xcel also raised their natural gas costs bigly over the winter. I'm sure that's a much bigger deal to them than when us Alabamians have natural gas rate hikes. So they probably see this power hike as an extra slap in the face after the NG hike punched them in the mouth.
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