June 10, 2014 07:04 PM UTC

Xcel Getting Desperate, Suing to Forcibly Keep Customers (Boulder) Who Rejected Them

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• by: catpuzzle

I posted two weeks about Xcel’s fight over municipalization in Boulder. Now it looks like Xcel is getting pretty desperate on this, so desperate in fact that they are suing the city of Boulder to try and force them to keep Xcel as their utility, even though folks voted to get rid of them. Per the DBJ:

Xcel Energy Inc. has filed a lawsuit against the city of Boulder, arguing that the City Council went too far when it voted to create a city-owned utility last month.

The suit, filed by Minneapolis-based Xcel in Boulder District Court Tuesday, claims that the City Council overstepped the limits voters imposed in a 2011 election on the matter.

So much for consumer choice, apparently. Boulder’s citizens made the ultimate consumer choice and decided to ditch Xcel, opting to run their own utility that can provide the kind of power for them that they want. After fighting it for years and years politically – and losing decisively – Xcel is now turning to the courts, hoping to force the people of Boulder to stay on as customers, even if they don’t want it. It looks like the prospect of municipalization is really scaring them, so much so that they are trying to force customers that don’t want to buy from them any more to keep buying. Boulder voters rejected them not once but twice – it's pretty clear where people stand: 

In 2011, Boulder voters granted city officials permission to explore ending the city’s electric service with Xcel (NYSE: XEL) as long as the new city-owned utility could meet or beat Xcel’s rates and service.

In November 2013, voters approved a $214 million cap on the cost of acquiring Xcel’s assets.

As I mentioned in that last post, it’s probably scary for Xcel because there’s a growing push across the state for this. Coloradans for Electricity Choices was launched by some solar advocates and others around the state. And, as MamaJamma mentioned in the comments on the other post, for Xcel and other utilities that are failing to provide the kind of services that folks want, or even attacking their own customers (i.e. those that want to use rooftop solar) the municipalization option is increasingly appealing, and people are starting to look into it.

This is good news for Pueblo, wrestling with the Black Hills Energy Monopoly, which has spared no effort to punish businesses and nonprofits who install solar on rooftops.

There are people meeting here discussing municipalization and/or forming an energy cooperative. The present situation is untenable – Black Hills has the highest rates in Colorado, is callous towards its impoverished consumers, and purposely suppresses solar.  Boulder may indeed light the path for the rest of the state to re-volt.

Thanks for the diary, cp.

This could prove to be a real problem for Xcel, and their response to it – trying to force customers that have rejected them to use their services – is not likely to be a successful approach in the long-term. In fact, it’s probably just going to piss off people – and the politicians that represent them – and I think it may wind up spelling further trouble for Xcel down the line.