Kathleen Lavine | Denver Business Journal
Ben Fowke, Xcel Energy?s chairman, president and CEO, at a 2010 energy forum in Denver.
Xcel Energy Inc. would move its headquarters out of Minneapolis if the city creates a new municipal utility to serve residents in place of Xcel, CEO Ben Fowke has said.
According to a story published Friday by the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper, Fowke told the Tribune?s editorial board, ?There is not a utility in the nation that has their headquarters in a city that has municipalized.?
The Star Tribune indicated that Fowke wasn?t threatening to leave the city, "as sports teams have done when demanding government subsidies, but rather [that leaving] was an inevitable result of a city utility takeover."
The Minneapolis City Council is scheduled to vote Aug. 1 on creating a new electric utility for residents; the matter is expected to go to voters in November.
It's anyone's guess if Denver might be in the running to host the headquarters of Xcel, one of the largest in the nation, if Minneapolis creates its own utility and Xcel decides to move out.
Xcel has nearly 12,000 employees in Colorado, according to research by the DBJ's Connie Elsbury. Of Xcel?s 3.4 million electricity customers in eight states, 40 percent live in Colorado, and of its 1.9 million natural gas customers, about 70 percent live here.
Denver was the headquarters of New Century Energies, which merged with Northern States Power in 2000 to create Xcel Energy.
In response to a request for comment, Laura McCarten, Xcel regional vice president, said: "A decision by the city of Minneapolis on municipalization is a long way off. We want to continue our more than 100-year partnership with the city and would prefer to work together to meet the city's energy goals rather than going down the divisive path of municipalization. We are hopeful that our efforts will be successful.
Cathy Proctor covers energy, the environment, transportation and construction for the Denver Business Journal and edits the weekly "Energy Inc." newsletter. Phone: 303-803-9233. Subscribe to the Energy Inc. newsletter
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