http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/
After a staggering 1,000-plus announced layoffs over recent months, Northeastern Minnesota’s iron-mining industry clearly needs a boost. Thanks to the Minnesota Legislature, every time any one of us flips on a light switch we’ll help provide it.
An energy-jobs bill passed during Friday’s special session authorized lower electrical rates for iron mines and other big energy guzzlers. They’ll pay less, leaving us little-guy residential and commercial power users to pay more to make up for it.
While this fact probably won’t help ease the pain of opening your Minnesota Power bill in the near future, for years, the utility said, the guzzlers have been paying more and the rest of us have been enjoying more-affordable rates as a result. We’ve had it good for some time. When Minnesota Power last raised rates in 2011, for example, state regulators approved a 4 percent increase for residential customers and a 16 percent increase for mines and other large industrial customers, as the Star Tribune reported Friday.
So the legislation approved Friday simply allows Minnesota Power to set rates more in line with actual energy use — for both big and small customers, said Pat Mullen, Minnesota Power’s vice president of marketing and communications.
“We have some of the lowest (electrical) rates (for residential customers) in the nation.