Does Xcel Energy Make the Grade on Providing Minnesotans the Energy You Deserve?
Minnesotans need a bold plan that gets us to 100% clean, renewable energy in order to protect our children’s and our climate’s future.
Last week, Xcel Energy and Sierra Club made big headlines with an agreement that included an announcement that Xcel was going coal-free by 2030. On the same day, Xcel shared a preview of its IRP (Integrated Resource Plan, a 15-year, long-term energy plan) with stakeholders that included a new fracked gas plant in Becker and a life extension request for its Monticello nuclear plant. Check out our blog post with more details here.
Today we’re sharing a report card based on the preview of Xcel’s plan.
While Xcel Energy’s plans include steps forward by retiring its coal plants early and adding historic amounts of energy efficiency and solar, Xcel’s commitment to building a new fracked gas plant in Becker doesn’t measure up. Instead of building an expensive fracked gas plant, Xcel should be meeting new needs with clean energy. More broadly, Xcel’s draft did not include plans to support all Minnesotans in the transition from dirty fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy--for example, community transition planning, increased access to clean energy and job-training programs -- and we expect Xcel to address this when the company files its proposed plan to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on July 1st.
Earlier this month, Sierra Club joined other organizations in sharing a letter with Xcel CEO Ben Fowke to share what we expect from Xcel’s Resource Plan. We’ve only seen a slideshow presentation of a draft preferred plan, so the details aren’t all there, and we haven’t had a chance yet to “look under the hood” of Xcel’s analysis. But here’s the good, the bad, and the incomplete of a few of the big picture items Sierra Club cares about:
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Articulate a Path to 100% Renewable Energy
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The good: Coal retirements before 2030, historic levels of energy efficiency, over 4,000 MW of new solar resources!
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The bad: Xcel plans to build a huge new fracked gas plant in Becker in 2026 and extend the life of the Monticello nuclear plant from 2030 to 2040 instead of articulating a path to 100% renewable energy. And Xcel CEO Ben Fowke told the MN PUC this week that they expect to add more gas in the future.
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Ensure Community & Worker Transition
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The incomplete: While Xcel has been engaging with stakeholders and is part of a socioeconomic impact study of plant communities expected later this year, there was no mention of community & worker and transition in the preview.
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Ensure Equitable Access to All of Clean Energy’s Benefits:
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The bad: Xcel assumes a very small amount of customer-sited clean energy and community solar in its plan, despite the popularity and widespread support for Xcel’s community solar program and industry in MN.
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The incomplete: Xcel’s preview did not include any commitments to including underserved communities in the economic benefits of clean energy.
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Strong Plan for Transit Electrification: Xcel must develop a plan for a future with high electrification of cars, public transit, buses and trucks
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The incomplete: While we know Xcel has been supporting transit electrification in Minnesota with new pilots, it is not clear yet whether they are planning for a future with high electrification of transit.
Overall, Xcel’s commitment to retire its remaining coal plants is a critical first step on a path to 100% clean, renewable energy, but it’s plan to build a new fracked gas plant in Becker takes us backwards. And we still need to see Xcel’s plan on community transition, equitable access to clean energy and transit electrification.
Until then, unfortunately Xcel doesn’t yet make the grade.