(Spirit Lake)– Equalize rates and do it now.
That was the plea Iowa Utility Board members heard Thursday at a public hearing in Spirit Lake on Interstate Power and Light/Alliant Energy’s proposed 16 percent rate increase.
The I-U-B has already granted the utility a temporary rate increase of just under 11 percent…totalling about 98 million dollars.
Interstate Power and Light/Alliant Energy officials say the increase is needed to pay for infrastructure improvements…including the recently completed Emery Generating Station near Mason City.
But several who spoke at Thursday’s hearing, including Sam Anderson of Big Spirit Lake, said the utility should be setting aside reserves to pay for such projects…instead of building them first and expecting the customers to have to pay for them through increased rates.
Spirit Lake resident Nancy Cook said she’s concerned over the impact increased rates will have on those who are on fixed income.
Pat Thomas, a Spirit Lake realtor, sounded off on the disparity of rates that exists among Interstate Power/Alliant Energy’s service territories…saying “This is unjust. It’s not fair and it’s not morally right.”
JoAnn Smith, Superintendent of the George-Little Rock School District, says the increased rates will only make matters worse for schools and cities…already reeling from state budget cuts.
Mark Lambert of the Iowa Utilities Board presided over Thursday’s hearing. He says addressing the rate equalization issue is going to be very tedious. He says it would have to be carefully phased in as customers in territories that currently have considerably lower rates would see them suddenly jump by 50 to 60 percent if the adjustment was made overnight.
Many people who spoke at Thursday’s hearing blasted the I-U-B for not addressing the rate disparity issue sooner. But Lambert said addressing it any sooner would have been ludicrous because he said the I-U-B knew the utility would soon be seeking another rate increase.
Lambert couldn’t give a time line as to when a rate equalization plan, which the I-U-B is now mandating of Interstate Power/Alliant, would be finalized.
Lambert says the the I-U-B will hear equalization proposals from the parties in the case at an evidentiary hearing in October.
The board must reach a final decision on the permanent rate increase proposal no later than January 14th, 2005.
