Fresh Energy applauds the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approval of the acquisition of Minnesota Power
On October 3, 2025, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved the acquisition of Minnesota Power. Fresh Energy applauds the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on this decision that prioritizes the interests of Minnesotans, maintains Minnesota Power’s ability to decarbonize electricity to meet the state’s greenhouse gas reduction goals, and ensures energy reliability and affordability.
“We applaud the Commission for seeing through a truly alarming amount of misinformation and disinformation that was propagated by some of the media around this issue. I am immensely proud of Fresh Energy’s contributions to this outcome, remaining laser focused on tangible outcomes affecting Minnesota Power’s communities and customers,” said Margaret Cherne-Hendrick, Chief Executive Officer of Fresh Energy. “Fresh Energy and our partners prioritized the real-world impacts this decision will have on Minnesotans. We are grateful to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission for its thoughtful work in delivering the best outcome for Minnesota Power’s customers, and particularly for its ongoing role providing regulation to ensure lowest-cost utility rates and common sense infrastructure investments, regardless of the utility ownership model.”
The Commission approved the acquisition, which itself includes customer rate mitigations including a $50 million customer rate credit, a $50 million fund dedicated to new clean energy technologies, a $10 million fund for low-income affordability through energy efficiency, and up to $3.5 million for unpaid bill forgiveness.
In addition to these direct financial customer benefits, the approval includes a series of “conditions” on the sale put forward by the Commission and a Minnesota Department of Commerce-led settlement, and agreed to by Minnesota Power. Fresh Energy is especially appreciative of conditions on resource planning, labor, and consumer protections beyond the direct financial contributions above. These include:
- Direction that Minnesota Power’s upcoming Integrated Resource Plan should include dramatically less natural gas generation.
- Reevaluation of the need for the Nemadji Trail Energy Center (NTEC), a long-disputed natural gas plant that has yet to be built.
- Enforceable capital commitments to fund Minnesota Power’s planned infrastructure investments.
- Maintaining current workforce and labor agreements.
- A condition that no costs from the transaction or any cost of debt increases from the transaction can be collected from customers.
- A “return on equity” reduction.
- A rate case stay-out for a year post Commission decision.
- A cap on Minnesota Power’s return on equity and capital structure limits through 2030.
- Protections against over-leveraging risk and concerns of financial engineering, including penalties for not maintaining investment grade credit ratings and multi-faceted debt ring-fencing.
- And, of course, after the acquisition the Commission retains all of its existing authority to regulate Minnesota Power — including approving its infrastructure investments, setting customer rates, setting the Company’s set rate of return and return on equity — among many others.
Entering into this docket was not a decision Fresh Energy took lightly. However, we felt that our involvement was imperative to advance the aforementioned conditions for the sale that will help maintain a healthy utility, keep consumer rates low, sustain family-supporting jobs, and invest in new clean energy infrastructure and in replacing critical aging infrastructure — all of which are necessary elements for Minnesota to reach its clean energy goals.
“Fresh Energy only decided to get involved in this proceeding after a thorough examination of the record and extensive conversations with stakeholders both for and against the sale,” said Allen Gleckner, Chief Policy Officer at Fresh Energy. “We determined that the sale of Minnesota Power would significantly mitigate risk to the transition to clean energy in Minnesota — an outcome that is in direct alignment with Fresh Energy’s mission and more than three decades of work as trusted experts in the clean electricity sector. We applaud the Commission for remaining focused on the substance of the issues at hand and what’s in the public interest of Minnesotans.”
Read more about Fresh Energy’s reasoning for engaging in the docket here.
Now that a decision has been reached by the Commission, Fresh Energy’s work will continue as we engage in Minnesota Power’s Integrated Resource Plan with the goal of increasing the build out of more renewables, transmission, battery storage, while minimizing fossil fuels to the maximum extent possible, this winter.
Media inquiries can be directed to Jo Olson, Chief Communications Officer at olson@fresh-energy.org or 218.290.6247.
