Letter to Editor:

Kudos to Xcel for their commitment to the increased use of renewable energy! However, Xcel’s plans for a fracked gas plant is a real head-scratcher. While a win for the industry, it will prolong our dependence on fossil fuels— a flagrant disregard for public health and a misuse of public dollars.

To explain, Xcel recently submitted a proposal to the MN Public Utility Commission to spend $3 billion to create 3,000 jobs to increase solar, storage, wind, and electrification efforts. In another PUC proposal, however, Xcel plans to build a fracked gas plant in Becker. At over a walloping billion dollars to build, it will create only about 30 permanent jobs – at a cost of about $34 million/ job. And with obsolescence expected in 15 years, we, the people, are on the hook for the abandoned infrastructure. And perhaps most egregious, Xcel must not care that fracked gas will fuel our climate crisis worse than coal.

We challenge whether Xcel is really committed to shifting to a renewable energy economy. To learn more, and what you can do to stop this fracked gas plant, attend Wright County Indivisible’s July 13 @ 7 pm zoom meeting.  Register at -  wrightcountyindivisible@gmail.com.

Loir Cocking- Waverly, MN

Renee Cardarelle, Annandale, MN

Sue Hedtke, Monticello, MN

Rose Thelen, Clearwater, MN