2019 Alliant Rate Case
Early in 2019, Alliant Energy filed a rate request with the Utilities Board to raise base rates 24.45% for residential customers, 18.36% for general service customers, and 25.29% for large general service customers.
Winneshiek Energy District (WED) believes the proposed rate increase is unreasonable, unjust, and discriminatory. We are working with local and state partners to ask the Iowa Utilities Board to do everything in their power to reject the wealth-extraction model Alliant is so aggressively pursuing, promote local clean energy prosperity through prioritizing energy efficiency and customer-owned renewable energy, and maximize Iowa’s climate stewardship and clean energy transition in the process. This page is a compilation of selected resources related to the rate case.
The rate case is heard by the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB), and all official filings can be found in the IUB’s online filing system under IUB docket RPU-2019-0001. Click on “filings” and “show all results”. You can sort the filing list by date, submitting party, or other heading in the blue bar.
Submit your own comment through the IUB’s Open Docket Comments Form (choose the Alliant docket RPU-2019-0001 from the list).
WED has coordinated with four local entities to intervene and submit testimony in this docket. Testimony is submitted under the “Decorah Area Group”, which consists of the City of Decorah, Luther College, Winneshiek Medical Center, Aase Haugen Senior Services, and WED. All DAG testimony can be accessed through the IUB link above, sorting by “submitting party” and scrolling to “Decorah Area Group”, or through the direct links below.
Decorah Area Group Filings (each filing contains multiple documents – click “view” next to the document to open it in pdf format)
- Electric Rates Matter To Every Community; WED News August 28, 2019, summarizing the testimony submitted in the filings linked below
- DAG direct testimony 8-1-19, filing part 1 of 3 (witnesses Dave Berg and Jim Martin-Schramm)
- DAG direct testimony 8-1-19, filing part 2 of 3 (witnesses Steve Holland, Andy Johnson, Warren McKenna, David Osterberg
- DAG direct testimony 8-1-19, filing part 3 of 3 (cover letter, request for confidential treatment)
- DAG rebuttal testimony 8-15-19 (witnesses Martin-Schramm and Johnson)
- DAG sur-rebuttal testimony 9-10-19, filing part 1 of 2 (witnesses Martin-Schramm, Berg, McKenna, Osterberg)
- DAG sur-rebuttal testimony 9-10-19, filing part 2 of 2 (Martin-Schramm additional exhibits)
- DAG partial objection to the non-unanimous partial settlement agreement 10-4-19
- DAG initial post-hearing brief, 11-12-19
- DAG final “reply” post-hearing brief, 11-18-19
- DAG Motion for Clarification, 1-21-20
Additional Selected Docket Filings
- Order Approving Corporate Undertaking, Scheduling Oral Argument, Docketing Proposed Tariff, Granting Interventions, Denying Motion To Consolidate, Setting Scheduling Conference, And Requiring Additional Information, Iowa Utilities Board, 3-26-2019
- Order Granting Interventions, Granting Requests For Admissoin Pro Hac Vice, Addressing Complaint, Denying Motion to Reduce Interim Rates, Providing Notice of Hearing, and Establishing Procedural Schedule; Iowa Utilities Board, 4-11-2019
- Joint Statement of Issues and Procedural Matters; filed by Interstate Power and Light (Alliant), 9-16-19
- Non-unanimous Partial Settlement Agreement and Joint Motion for Approval, joint motion, 10-3-19
- Transcripts and Exhibits from Hearing Held October 7, 8, and 9; Peterson Court Reporters
- Alliant response to board order requiring final rate impact details of proposed settlement, 11-7-19
- Final Decision and Order; Iowa Utilities Board, 1-8-20
- IUB Press Release on Final Order; Iowa Utilities Board, January 9, 2020
Local News Coverage
- Alliant Rate Increase … and What You Can Do About It: WED News April 22, 2019
- DecorahNews.com story of the Decorah City Council Resolution opposing the rate increase, April 22, 2019
- Citizens ask IUB to deny Alliant Rate Increase: Decorah Newspapers, May 9, 2019
- Localism Versus Wealth Extraction: WED News June 25, 2019
- Alliant Proposal: Equity, Efficiency Failure: Iowa Policy Points, September 2019
- Electric Rates Matter To Every Community; WED News August 28, 2019, summarizing the testimony submitted in the filings linked in the section below
- Decorah Area Group” Opposes the “Non-Unanimous Settlement” in the Alliant Rate Case; Decorahnews.com, 10-6-19
- Alliant Rate Case Update; WED News October 14, 2019
- DAG Response to Alliant Claims of Small Change; Decorahnews.com, November 24, 2019
- Parties Respond to IUB Ruling On Alliant Rate Case; Decorah Newspapers, Jan 24, 2020
- DAG Statement in Response to Final IUB Final Order; WED News, January 10, 2020
- Letter to Editor: Alliant Should Have Been Punished; Decorahnews.com, January 22, 2020
- Alliant Rate Case Roundup; WED News, January 29, 2020
- Five Feet High and Risin’; WED Editorial, January 29, 2020
Broader News Coverage
- Mason City Council opposes Alliant Energy rate increase; Mason City Globe Gazette, May 8, 2019
- Two Decades of Electric Rate Increases in Iowa; Globe Gazette, July 14, 2019
- The Cost of Things; Cedar Rapids Gazette, July 14, 2019
- ELPC and IEC Call for Retirement of Expensive Coal Plants, Rejection of Blank Check for Grid Investments in Alliant Rate Case; Energy News, August 2, 2019
- EDITORIAL: Time for the IUB to say no; Ottumwa Courier, August 6, 2019
- Alliant Customers Concerned with Rate Hike; nwestiowa.com, August 14, 2019
- Iowa utility’s rate hike would fall hardest on the smallest users, critics say; Energy News Network, September 17, 2019
- Utility would drop how much money it wants from Iowa customers by 40% under proposed settlement; Des Moines Register, 10-7-19
- Settlement Includes Process to Analyze Uneconomic Coal Plants; Iowa Environmental Council, October 7, 2019
- Cities want a piece of the clean energy future; Cedar Rapids Gazette guest column by DAG’s Andy Johnson and Jim Martin-Schramm, 10-13-19
- Transparency was a casualty in Alliant rate case; Cedar Rapids Gazette guest column by Iowa Policy Project’s David Osterberg (also a DAG expert witness), 1-20-20