Minneapolis eyes way to push utilities to be greener

Minneapolis is Xcel’s home town, and a much bigger market than Boulder. The city is now talking about allowing their franchise agreement to lapse, in order to pursue more aggressive renewable energy policies than state law will allow if they’re served by the monopoly utility.  The article gives a nod to Boulder’s votes over the last two years to explore the alternatives to franchise agreements, including the formation of a municipal utility.  It’s great to see another much larger city looking at its options, and as far as pushing the overall utility business model to change, it’s great to see this happening within Xcel’s service territory.  There’s a threshold out there somewhere, beyond which the current arrangement is no longer stable, and even the utility will start begging for something different.  The faster we can get there, the better.