Xcel may hike rates to offset solar power users

Company could go to permanent fees to keep profits up

You might see electric bills in the La Crosse area go up, as a hedge against customers moving away from the electric company toward solar power. 

An energy consultant from California says Xcel is moving toward putting a permanent fee on power bills, to insure that it keeps making money. 

Ben Paulos says this has been tried in other cities. Paulos is in La Crosse to talk about what people in Madison and Minneapolis have done to seek alternative energy and to fight against rate increases. 

At 4:30 p.m., he’ll take part in a discussion this afternoon at the Lunda Center on the Western Tech campus.