Legislative Issues

ACTION ALERT

Link to Comment on  Docket 9300-DR-105

Xcel Energy has announced a new transportation vision that drives toward providing the infrastructure and energy to run all vehicles in its service area on carbon-free electricity or other clean energy by 2050. Expanding upon the company’s existing 2030 electric vision supports its overall goal to become a net-zero energy provider by 2050. By enabling a zero-carbon transportation future, the company’s clean energy can also help customers save billions of dollars in fuel costs and deliver cleaner air for everyone.

“Xcel Energy is making incredible progress and has already reduced power sector carbon emissions by fifty percent since 2005,” said Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President, and CEO of Xcel Energy. “As we expand our clean energy leadership to transportation, which is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the nation, we know that electric vehicles are a key component of our comprehensive strategy to be a net-zero energy provider by 2050.”

The Board of Directors of MGE Energy has announced an increased the regular quarterly dividend rate approximately five percent to $0.4075 per share on the outstanding shares of the company's common stock. The dividend is payable September 15, 2022, to shareholders of record September 1, 2022. This raises the annualized dividend rate by eight cents from $1.55 per share to $1.63 per share.

"Today's dividend increase marks the company's 47th consecutive year of increasing its dividend, an accomplishment that everyone at MGE Energy can be proud of. We recognize the importance of dividend growth to the overall shareholder value proposition," Chairman, President and CEO Jeff Keebler said. "We continue to move forward in our clean energy transition to achieve our goals of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and carbon reductions of at least 80% by 2030. Today's action by our board demonstrates the continued strength and resilience of MGE Energy's long-term business strategy in building your community energy company for the future."

MGE Energy has increased its dividend annually for the past 47 years and has paid cash dividends for more than 110 years.

Great Place to Work® and Fortune magazine have honored American Transmission Company as one of the 2022 Best Workplaces in Manufacturing & Production™. This is the fifth consecutive year ATC was named to this prestigious list, and the seventh overall time, this year coming in at number 13 on the list. Earning a spot means that ATC is one of the best companies to work for in the country.

The Best Workplaces in Manufacturing & Production award is based on analysis of survey responses from 57,000 current employees in the manufacturing and production industry category. In that survey, eighty-eight percent of ATC’s employees said ATC is a great place to work compared to fifty-seven percent of employees at the average U.S. company.

Construction activities are underway at the future site of the Red Barn Wind Farm in Grant County. A subsidiary of Madison Gas and Electric will purchase a ten percent share of the 92-megawatt (MW) project when it’s complete.

Minnesota-based ALLETE Clean Energy is constructing the wind farm, which will consist of 28 turbines over about 12,000 acres. The land hosting the turbines will be leased from local landowners, who may continue to use it for farming or grazing. MGE’s share of the project is expected to generate enough energy to power about 4,000 households.

The company’s investment in the Red Barn Wind Farm is one of several renewable energy projects in various stages of development.

The price of natural gas affects both natural gas service and electric service because natural gas is also used to generate electricity. The cost of natural gas is paid directly by customers without any markup from Xcel Energy.

Wholesale natural gas prices continue to increase, hitting a fifteen year high. The wholesale price of natural gas was also higher than anticipated in the third quarter, leading to an under-collection from electric customers.

Site Selector Magazine has announced that for the fourth consecutive year Alliant Energy has earned their Top Utility in Economic Development honor. The annual list recognizes the company for its contributions to local community development and job creation.   

In its September issue, Site Selection credits Alliant Energy’s economic development team, in collaboration with local, regional and state economic development partners in Iowa and Wisconsin, for delivering more than $2.1 billion in new capital investment and creating more than 4,400 new jobs in 2021.  

Alliant Energy is one of twenty companies nationally named to the list and the only one in Iowa. In all, there are 3,300 utility companies, including 900 electric cooperatives, in the United States. 

Xcel Energy will move forward to build Minnesota’s largest-ever solar project at the Sherco plant site in Becker, as it transitions away from using coal at the site in the coming years. Today, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) provided the final approvals needed for Sherco Solar, which is a key component of Xcel Energy’s plan to nearly triple the amount of solar on its Upper Midwest system by 2028.

In addition to being the largest single solar development in Minnesota, the Upper Midwest and among the largest in the United States, Sherco Solar will provide clean energy while also being the lowest-cost solar on Xcel Energy’s Upper Midwest system. It will also create jobs and investment in the Becker community as the Sherco coal plant is retired in the coming years. The solar project will serve as a direct replacement for most of the capacity of the first coal unit retiring at the Sherco plant.

Alliant Energy is about to begin construction on six new solar projects in central Wisconsin that will generate enough electricity to power about 100,000 homes annually once completed. The utility has received approval for the projects from the Public Service Commission. 

The projects are Albany Solar in Green County, Beaver Dam Solar in Dodge County, Cassville Solar in Grant County, Paddock Solar in Rock County, Springfield Solar in Dodge County and Wautoma Solar in Waushara County. 

Consistent with its commitment to sustainable energy and to global climate science, Madison Gas and Electric will reduce carbon at least eighty percent by 2030 as it works toward achieving net-zero carbon electricity by 2050. Under its Energy 2030 framework, announced in 2015, the company set a goal of forty percent carbon reduction by 2030, one of the first such goals set by a utility and in alignment with the Paris Agreement on climate change. 

Since then, the company has said it fully expects to achieve carbon reductions of at least sixty-five percent by 2030. In 2019, MGE established its goal of net-zero carbon electricity by mid-century, consistent with climate science from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and analysis of the company’s goal by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. 

The Xcel Energy Foundation has announced it has awarded $305,000 to fifty-eight nonprofits in Wisconsin and Michigan to help provide funding for critical programs in their communities.

“At Xcel Energy we’re doing our part to support our customers and communities,” said Mark Stoering, president of Xcel Energy, Wisconsin and Michigan. “Our mission is to provide our customers safe, clean, reliable energy services, but we also know that the quality of life in our communities is equally important to their continued success.”

  Xcel Energy has announced that has been elected to the company’s Board of Directors effective immediately. Burkhart is an accomplished executive with decades of experience in human resources compensation, culture, and diversity, equity and inclusion. She currently serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer at Comerica Incorporated, a major financial services company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. She is responsible for leading the bank’s people strategy and organization for the $94 billion company. Prior to her current role, Burkhart served as Senior Vice president and Director of Compensation. She joined Comerica in 1997.

The U.S. Department of Justice is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that blocked a controversial transmission line’s crossing through the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge.  

The U.S. DOJ filed the appeal June 8 on behalf of federal agencies that granted approvals for the 345-kilovolt Cardinal-Hickory Creek Transmission Line. American Transmission Company, ITC Midwest and Dairyland Power Cooperative are building the line that would run 101 miles from Dane County to Dubuque County in Iowa.

American Transmission Company has announced that Scott J. Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer of WEC Energy Group, has joined ATC’s Board of Directors, replacing J. Kevin Fletcher who retired from WEC Energy Group on June 1, 2022. Eric Lundberg, ATC’s Vice President of Finance, was named the company’s Treasurer, a title previously held by Mike Hofbauer, ATC’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Lauber was named President and CEO of WEC Energy Group and appointed to the company’s Board of Directors in February 2022. He became President — We Energies, Wisconsin Public Service, Michigan Gas Utilities and Minnesota Energy Resources in January 2022, and President, Upper Michigan Energy Resources in February 2022. In the president roles, Lauber is responsible for business operations for WEC Energy Group’s utilities in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. Lauber joined Wisconsin Energy Corporation in 1990 and has held positions of increasing responsibility, including financial manager, distribution operations, and manager, corporate accounting and budgeting.

The state’s utility regulators want Wisconsin’s energy efficiency program to play a larger role in cutting carbon emissions as part of efforts to combat climate change.

The Public Service Commission has voted 2-1 for the state’s Focus on Energy program to play a greater role in cost-effectively cutting carbon emissions while continuing to emphasize energy savings. However, Republican lawmakers are wary. 

Commissioners have supported research, planning and investment of resources that would set Focus on a path toward playing a larger role in promoting replacement of fossil fuels with electricity to reduce emissions and energy costs.

The commission stopped short of fully changing Focus on Energy’s goals, opting instead to treat the next four years as a “transitional period” in which the program maintains an emphasis on energy savings while also making “measurable progress” toward reducing carbon emissions.

The Public Service Commission has awarded $10 million in funding from the Energy Innovation Grant Program. The grants went to forty-six projects that reduce energy consumption and demand, install renewable energy and battery storage technologies, and create comprehensive energy plans. Applications for this grant cycle were due on January 14, 2022. The PSC received 105 applications requesting more than $31 million in funding.

“I am thrilled with the grants that were funded today, which will support manufacturers, farms, local governments, schools, nonprofits, and residents across Wisconsin invest in innovative clean energy projects and save on energy costs,” according to PSC Commissioner Tyler Huebner. “The Energy Innovation Grant Program is a vital resource to help in our statewide efforts to keep energy affordable and reduce carbon emissions.”