FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Community groups are banding together to push back against increasingly frequent rate hikes proposed by Kentucky utility companies.

Each year, the Kentucky Public Service Commission receives hundreds of applications to change rates and services.

Josh Bills, commercial energy specialist for the Mountain Association, said most of the cases go unchallenged.

He pointed out last fall, Kentucky Power asked for a 25% rate increase, its third in five years, saying the change was needed to help pay for new meters.

"They are also setting aside particular costs and passing those directly to customers as surcharges," Bills observed. "So, it's getting to be more and more complicated for a customer to look at their bill and understand what their rates are and how much they're being charged."

The Mountain Association and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth intervened in the case and brought ratepayers to the table to voice their concerns, with more than 250 people filing public comments.

The commission reduced the rate hike amount, but eastern Kentuckians' energy bills will still increase by about 12.5%.

Now, the Kentucky Solar Energy Society, Metropolitan Housing Coalition and other groups are intervening in rate cases filed by Louisville Gas and Electric, and Kentucky Utilities, with hearings expected next month.

Bills said it's critical to bring more community voices to rate cases, which largely go unnoticed by the public.

He noted Kentucky Power wants to overhaul its solar net-metering rates, an arrangement that allows customers to offset their electricity costs by investing in rooftop solar.

"It makes for a much more complicated system, on top of the complicated system that we have, but it could also bring just a world of benefits," Bills contended. "And so, we need to be open to the trend and direction that we're going, toward renewables; and renewables, you know, not centrally located."

He added for now, the commission has deferred weighing in on changes to solar net-metering, but a final decision is expected in May.

Bills shared he supports the Public Service Commission's work to ensure reasonable rates for residents, and emphasized it puts Kentucky in a different boat than Texas, whose wholesale energy shifted to a competitive marketplace, with massive consequences, after a historic storm left millions without power.

"We don't have that competitive wholesale going on where retail customers can chose the least-cost provider," Bills maintained. "We are limited to the electricity provider that supplies us. As such, they are wholly taking on that risk of what happens in extreme events."

Government forecasters expect nationwide power consumption to increase this year, after falling by more than 3% in 2020.

Minnesota is a leader in renewable energy - getting 54% of its electricity from zero-carbon sources last year, according to the 2024 Minnesota Energy Factsheet released today. The annual report comes from Clean Energy Economy Minnesota and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy.

Amelia Cerling-Hennes, managing director of public affairs with Clean Energy Economy Minnesota, said that's 12% better than the national average.

"We're really pleased to see about 600 megawatts of wind and solar getting added, and we're anticipating that that's going to be even higher next year as some of the large utility-scale projects that are being built right now kind of come online," she said.

Carbon emissions from the power sector also dropped 54% in 2023 with the retirement of part of the Sherco coal-fired power plant. Electric vehicle registrations went up 55%. Last year, Minnesota-based Cummins began shipping electrolyzers, which generate energy from hydrogen.

Andy Kim, president of the civil engineering firm EVS in Eden Prairie, said battery storage will be increasingly paired with large-scale solar projects in the future.

"You get uninterrupted power, you improve grid stability, and ultimately, it will lead to cost savings. And we see battery storage on at least half of our projects right now. And I would not be surprised if within the next two years, we see it on 80-90% of our projects," Kim said.

Cerling-Hennes adds the state made big strides policy-wise in 2023.

"So much happened last year, starting with passing 100% clean energy by 2040. And then following that up with a really historic energy omnibus bill. We created the Minnesota Climate Innovation Finance Authority. We funded high-voltage transmission," she said.

Tara Narayanan, lead analyst for North American regional trends with Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said energy efficiency is working - electricity consumption went down even as productivity went up. However, she notes that we need to ramp up the clean-energy transition even faster if we are to meet the goals set by the Paris Accords.

"Compare where we are going against where the U.S. has committed to go, we're really not on track. We're really going to have to make dramatic efforts in order to get to where we had committed to be in 2013," Narayanan said.

The state got $800 million in climate funding from President Joe Biden's infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act.


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New federal funding aims to revolutionize solar energy access within New Mexico's Native American communities and benefit the state overall.

The Environmental Protection Agency's $7 billion "Solar for All" program is designed to create new or expanded low-income solar programs.

Talia Martin, co-executive director of the National Tribal Program for GRID Alternatives, said the funding will help bridge the clean energy gap in Native American communities.

"In New Mexico, tangible impacts would be for household savings," Martin explained. "Which means working directly with the tribes to ensure that the savings are going to individual households as well as to the community as a whole."

According to Martin, the $62 million EPA grant awarded to the GRID Tribal Program is its largest ever. Nationwide, the agency's program is set to help at least 4,700 households in Native American communities. Across the U.S., the EPA said the program will enable more than 900,000 low-income households and disadvantaged communities to benefit from distributed solar energy.

Martin emphasized the program will allow GRID to help bolster solar storage capabilities and implement essential upgrades, while at the same time advancing their mission to support the self-determined efforts of Native American tribes to deploy clean energy on tribal lands, arguing it will be important to recruit contractors who understand the needs of tribal communities they're working with.

"It's an amazing window for Indian Country to be involved in energy development," Martin pointed out. "We want to just help foster all these relationships that it is going to take to do that."

The state of New Mexico also received a grant of $156 million from the program to overcome existing barriers to widespread adoption of distributed solar generation. In addition to the federal money for solar, Array Technologies announced last week it will build a new $50 million solar manufacturing campus near Albuquerque.

A round of public testimony wrapped up this week as part of renewed efforts by a company seeking permit approval in North Dakota for an underground pipeline carrying carbon emissions. Economic benefits were again touted but the plan still has opponents.

Last year, North Dakota's Public Service Commission denied a permit request from Summit Carbon Solutions, which wants to build a maze of pipelines in several Midwestern states. Emissions from ethanol plants would be captured for underground storage in North Dakota.

Skott Skokos, executive director of the Dakota Resource Council, said they remain unconvinced it would be a worthwhile project.

"It felt like déjà vu," Skokos observed. "I don't think Summit did anything to relax the concerns of the public."

Company officials have submitted a new application with a revised route as they try to ease concerns about safety and landowner rights. During comment periods, Summit leaders and other speakers discussed how the project would provide economic boosts, including corn prices. However, skeptics restated their concerns about potential ruptures and lasting negative effects on the landscape.

Skokos pointed out large carbon-capture projects like these have yet to prove themselves, noting smaller initiatives are not as likely to rile up opponents. He pointed to the Red Trail ethanol plant in North Dakota.

"They're storing it, basically, almost on-site, next to the facility and they're not affecting a bunch of landowners in the process," Skokos emphasized.

The Summit regulatory case has two upcoming public hearings in North Dakota, one scheduled for May 24 and the other on June 4. The company has run into similar opposition and permitting headwinds in other states, including South Dakota.