February 1, 2017 MinnPost By Briana Bierschbach With complete control of the Minnesota Legislature, Republicans are taking early aim this session at a little-discussed state commission that has a big say on energy issues. Republicans have introduced a half-dozen bills that would change the power and makeup of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, a five-member…

February 1, 2017 / Forbes Xcel Energy, an investor-owned utility based in Minneapolis, is about to make the deal of the century thanks to pork barrel politics in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. In January, the Minnesota Public Utility Commission, which regulates the state’s utility monopolies, said it would initiate a proceeding to examine the…

January 27, 2017 WCCO News Radio CUB’s executive director Annie Levenson-Falk was on the air with Roshini Rajkumar (in for the usual Friday evening host Jordana Green) to discuss why an Xcel Energy proposal to skip consumer protections before building a new natural gas power plant is a bad deal for ratepayers.

January 18, 2017 Midwest Energy News   A group of large industrial users joined consumer advocates in decrying a bill that would permit Xcel Energy to build a 786 megawatt combined cycle natural gas plant without regulatory approval. The gas plant, likely to cost more than $1 billion, would replace two coal-fired units at Xcel…

January 17, 2017 St. Cloud Times   A bill under consideration at the state Capitol would allow Xcel Energy to build a new natural gas power plant in Sherburne County to replace energy from the Sherco coal plant in Becker. But opponents say it would bypass the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, which declined last year to…

January 12, 2017 / Minneapolis Star Tribune Utility regulators had put the decision on hold while asking for more study Bills have been introduced in the Legislature that would allow Xcel Energy to build a big power plant in Sherburne County, a project usually decided by Minnesota utility regulators, not written into state law. In…

October 30 / Minneapolis Star Tribune / The Citizens Utility Board (CUB) has landed in Minnesota. Its main mission: To advocate for consumers when utilities want to raise the light or gas bills. The concept in Minnesota comes from Illinois, where the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) has represented ratepayers since 1984. The Illinois CUB was created…

October 21, 2016 / Minnesota Public Radio News Annie Levenson-Falk, the head of CUB (Citizens Utility Board) Minnesota, talked about how the board will focus on consumers’ utility bills in Minnesota and how to lower them or at least keep them from going up. Listen to the interview