The "Decorah Area Group" makes its final filing in the Alliant Energy rate increase case

The Decorah Area Group—the alliance made up of the City of Decorah, Winneshiek Energy District, Luther College, Winneshiek Medical Center, and Aase Haugen Senior Services--has filed its final statement with the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) in the rate case involving Alliant Energy.

The group points out that Alliant was awarded a rate increase of $130 million in 2017 and that if Alliant's current rate increase request is granted, it would result in an overall increase of over 20% in just three years.  Says the statement sent to the IUB, "This result creates an untenable and unjust level of wealth extraction from (Alliant) customers and communities and imposes a heavy energy burden not only on low and moderate income and otherwise disadvantaged households, but also on businesses and entire communities."

The DAG filing also discusses last year's vote in Decorah on a possible study of creating a municipal electric utility.  It mentions the feasibility study done by Concentric Energy, which assumed a rate case increase every third year with a 3 percent increase.  Says the filing by DAG, "Just one year after making that assumption, (Alliant) has requested an increase of 11.7%.  It added, "On numerous occasions, representatives of (Alliant) publicly stated they stand by the conclusions of the (Concentric) report."

The DAG filing ends by urging the Iowa Utilities Board to lower Alliant's proposed rate increase and hold Alliant accountable for its "duplicitous actions in this case and in the Decorah municipalization effort."

The Iowa Utilities Board is expected to release a ruling in December or January.