While the ruling is not final, it serves as recommendation to Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission to vote to allow an extra monthly cost—referred to by the company as an Extraordinary Gas Cost Recovery Rider—for up to 30 months.
“I was shocked, basically,” said Brian Treacy, an Xcel customer living in Westminster. “I’ve never seen an incident like this happen. I’ve seen the rate increases, but nothing paying for a shortfall for a cold freeze that we prepared to pay for a year—but not for another state.” This is not the first time Coloradans have been asked to shoulder the increased energy costs from last year’s cold snap. In April of last year, several customers with other utility companies reached out to Denver7 reporting bills that were hundreds and even thousands of dollars higher than normal. The rate increases would not be that high under this temporary rider for Xcel Energy; even still, Treacy said he’s angry.
“We get cold weather here, and we’re prepared to pay for it—but, not because somebody else doesn’t get cold weather,” Treacy said, referring to Texas’s grid failure during the ice storm. Governor Jared Polis criticized the judge’s decision in a statement, saying he is “disappointed that utility providers are able to balance their financial loss on the backs of consumers, when extra costs could have been avoided by better early warning systems for customers to voluntarily reduce energy usage.” He called on the Public Utilities Commission to establish specific usage reduction plans to avoid “any extraordinary fees for future events.
👎🏼😡🤬🤯they just fee is to death!🤑💵💸💰💲💲💲
Ask XcelEnergyCO how much they could reinvest if they stayed away from political donations. Why do consumers have to pay extra because they believed the GlobalWarming BS?
Why does a judge, one person, get to make such a decision?
An energy company that made $660 million in profits in CO last year needs to transfer their 'financial burden' onto CO residents...🤔
Administrative Law Judge Melody Mirbaba is her name
What about us the people? Don’t we deserve a break somewhere? Rising costs in food, gas, housing, water and gas/electricity!!! Where do the people see a break?
A judge siding with corporations? Unthinkable.
Why should we be paying the fee for something that they do? Seriously all of us consumers would like to know because we're already getting charged out the ass as it is
We're going to be stuck paying more because Texas didn't join the national grid? This is on all people connected to that decision not Texas residents and definitely not Colorado residents wth, how does that even make sense?
Why should Colorado offset this cost? Texas is always bragging about how their power grid is independent from the national grid. Let them deal with the costs and consequences.
Mean while executives sit back and watch the cash roll in
Fees like taxes are rarely temporary. They just change names
Great. My gas bill was $200 higher than normal last winter without excess use. Texas needs to get it together and fix their grid.
Polis brings up a good point that XCEL could have avoided much of this with a warning. Is Xcel in financial trouble? Running in the red? IF rates go up, when will the Texan cold-snap be paid in full so rates return to normal? Is this a one time fee? 3 month?
This Judge is on the take and should be disbarred over this ruling! What Bull Shit!
As if they dont charge us enough!
Sounds like an Xcel thing to do