CO: Customers stiff Xcel (utility) with $26M of (winter heating) debt

[UpInArms]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12571845/

The state's largest utility wrote off a record $25.78 million in 2005 for bills customers didn't pay in Colorado, up 64 percent from the previous year as energy costs soared and customers struggled to keep up.

"It's the highest that we've ever seen," said Mark Stutz, a spokesman for Xcel Energy Inc. (NYSE: XEL), of the 2005 write-off for bad debt in Colorado. "But it corresponds with the highest cost for natural gas that we've ever seen. It's a function of higher natural gas prices and customers' difficulty paying the bill."

The cost to heat a home in Colorado was up between 35 percent and 40 percent this winter compared to last winter. Xcel serves about 1.3 million customers in Colorado through its subsidiary, Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCo). The average residential Xcel bill is $135.20 a month, based on current rates.

In its annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, PSCo reported that write-offs for 2005 soared 64 percent to $25.78 million from the $15.68 million in bad debt PSCo reported for 2004.

<snip>

And Colorado had the second-highest foreclosure rate in the nation for Q1 2006, one new foreclosure for every 138 households, according to RealtyTrac, a California company that tracks foreclosures across the nation.

...more...

[Robbien]

1. Rate hikes boost profit 25% for Xcel

Oh poor Xcel, they had bad debts of $26 million. But bottom line after these bad debt write offs Xcel had earnings of $150 million in the first quarter alone.

Boohoo. Poor Xcel.

[UpInArms]

2. I was a bit more concerned for all those people could not

pay their heating bills, foreclosures were going up and then after all of that Xcel will go to the public utility commission and get the rates raised again.

:grr: (to Xcel)

[Robbien]

3. Me too. But the article was talking about Xcel being "stiffed"

as if I should be worried about that.

AS IF. Bah!

[UpInArms]

4. it is absurd how the headline writers skew the articles

to the favor of the GOP and the corporations.