Republicans will pay more for electricity in South Dakota

Utilities are not your friends. 

Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy screws customers in Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas and New Mexico. In 2013 the firm cashed in on its own vulnerable downed power lines it fixed with federal money in Minnesota after a record snowfall linked to climate disruptions it's partly responsible for. In my home state of South Dakota Xcel proposed the remediation of contaminated areas to permit unrestricted use of the Pathfinder nuclear site and spent more than a million bucks on ballot issues. 

In Colorado alone the company and its shareholders got rich growing cannabis by burning coal and in 2014, Xcel gave $10,000 to Mike Rounds, $2,500 to John Thune and $4,250 to Kristi Noem. In 2015 the utility even sued to prevent the hookup of a solar generating station for a Minnesota company and enjoys frequent rate hikes from the South Dakota Public Utilities Cartel (SDPUC). That same year Xcel slow-walked grid ties for subscribers with home grown solar in its home state and in Colorado the syndicate charges homeowners .17 a kWh in base rates but only pays .08 cents per kWh to subscribers with rooftop solar. 

In 2016 an Xcel principal engaged in a violent crackdown of pipeline activists. In 2017 Xcel used federal production tax credits to build South Dakota's biggest bird and bat killer. In 2022 a proposed ballot measure, called Initiative 93, would have required Colorado's investor-owned utilities — Xcel Energy and Black Hills Energy — to pay at least five percent of their revenues back to customers. Here in New Mexico Xcel Energy adds a surcharge for customers who choose a photovoltaic power grid tie. 

Xcel's PAC gave far more to Earth hating Republicans in both 2022 and 2024 and Howdy Doody Dusty Johnson got $5,000 from it last cycle according to Open Secrets.

No corporate taxes, a compliant regulator, a dearth of environmental protection and cheap labor make South Dakota the perfect dumping ground for earth killers like coal and eyesores like wind farms. 

Today, Xcel Energy has agreed to pay $640 million for its role in Colorado's Marshall Fire so the utility wants a nineteen percent rate increase on 107,000 mostly Republican South Dakota subscribers.