When Xcel Energy found out they weren’t going to make a ton of cash with a proposed EV charging network, their clean energy virtue signaling folded like a cheap suit and they withdrew the offer in Minnesota.
But still pending in Colorado is Xcel’s nearly identical plan to construct a charger network statewide at a cost of $140 million to ratepayers, just as soon as the Colorado Public Utilities Commission approves the monopoly STRIKE plan.
Folks in Minnesota have reasonable concerns about giving a public utility company a leg up over small businesses also planning to provide charging stations.
From The Gazette:
In a press release, the Charge Ahead Partnership, a coalition of businesses, associations and individuals working to expand access to the EV charging marketplace said private businesses including retailers, gas stations and convenience stores “are eager to offer EV charging services because they already have the locations and amenities that customers desire. However, they cannot confidently invest in EV charging if they are forced to compete against a powerful state-sanctioned monopoly.”
In exchange for their millions in increased rates, customers would get a discount at the charging station. For how much or for how long remains to be seen.
Just last week, the utilities commission gave Xcel the thumbs up for a rate hike of nearly $164 million just to meet the carbon emission targets set by Gov. Polis, The Gazette reported in another article.
No word on how much that’s also going to cost utility customers.
That’s the thing about scaring the populace into believing the world will end unless governments and corporations take more of your money to build a different kind of infrastructure from which they will profit more than the current guys who don’t vote correctly.
We’re spending a buttload more money for the same services and livability, but with the delusional belief we’re saving mankind from hypothetical temperature predictions and seasonal weather changes.