(Des Moines)– Governor Chet Culver is asking Interstate Power and Light Company President Tom Aller to delay a temporary 10 percent electric rate increase for the utility’s 525,000 Iowa customers.
The increase is effective this Saturday. The utility has asked the Iowa Utilities Board for a permanent 14 percent increase, but the board isn’t expected to make a decision until next year.
In a letter Wednesday to Aller, Culver said the increase comes at a time when many of IPL’s customers are struggling financially.
Ryan Stensland, a spokesman for IPL’s parent company, Alliant Energy, said the utility would respond to Culver’s letter on Thursday.
Alliant has said it needs the increase because it just opened a 200-megawatt, $468 million wind farm and is also spending on emission controls and transmission line upgrades.
The Iowa Utilities Board will hold a public hearing on Alliant Energy’s proposed rate increase Wednesday, April 14th at 1:30 p.m. in the Community Room at the Dickinson County Courthouse in Spirit Lake.
