Letter: Excel's proposed rate increase is due to poor management

Xcel Energy is asking for a 19% electric rate increase for North Dakota customers. Xcel tells us it needs the rate increase because of all the investing it's doing. But what is Xcel investing in?

They're tearing down reliable and efficient coal fired plants near The Cities. They're building or investing in unreliable windmills. They're building long and expensive transmission lines to haul electricity from those windmills back to where the coal fired plants used to be. Xcel is also building gas-fired generating plants to backup the unreliable windmills.

Why is Xcel doing all of this? For Xcel, it's all about the money. Lets say Xcel invests a billion dollars in the aforementioned things. In North Dakota they're allowed a 9 - 11% return on that investment, which for a billion dollar inv