Feds sue Xcel Energy over plans for Minnesota plants
Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - by Jim Hammerand Staff writer
Federal regulators say Xcel Energy Inc. has refused to provide information about two of its Minnesota power plants, according to a new lawsuit.
Government attorneys said in a federal lawsuit filed in Minneapolis's U.S. District Court Monday afternoon that the Minneapolis-based utility stonewalled Environmental Protection Agency requests for information on planned construction projects at the Sherburne County (Sherco) plant in Becker and the Black Dog plant in Burnsville.
Both plants are owned and operated by Xcel (NYSE: XEL) subsidiary Northern States Power Co.
An Xcel spokesman didn't have an immediate comment when reached Tuesday. The company has not yet filed an answer to the government's charges.
In July 2009, the suit said, the EPA sought information from Xcel on future capital expenditures and generating capacity increases at the two plants.
Xcel, writing the EPA less than a month later, denied the requests, saying they went beyond the EPA's authority under the Clean Air Act.
The EPA narrowed the scope of its initial request, but Xcel still declined to provide information, saying data on future construction and capacity would not help the EPA determine whether the plants presently violate the Clean Air Act.
The EPA's power of enforcement "is not tied to whether Xcel Energy has implemented or completed a project," wrote the agency's Gaylene Vasaturo, associate regional counsel, in correspondence with the power company.
In a later letter, Xcel attorney Debra Jezouit contends that supplying future plans for expansion would give its competitors an advantage and be an "unreasonable" burden on the utility company. Xcel, she wrote, "fully responded" to the requests it felt were within the EPA's authority.
The Department of Justice said Xcel faces civil fines of up to $37,500 per day for each violation.
The Sherco plant has three coal-fired electric generating units between 750 and 900 megawatts.The Black Dog plant has two coal units, at 120 and 186 megawatts. Both plants are classified as "major emitting facilities" because they release thousands of tons or air pollutants every year, according to the suit.
jhammerand@bizjournals.com | (612) 288-2138
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