MrBlack- it's refreshing to hear an educated opinion.

Everyone is so quick to stike at the Big Bad Power company, but you're exactly right... this last winter when over a million people were without power in the midwest, the people from the electric company were working 24/7 to get things back up and running, in sub-zero temperatures... Then this spring, during the floods, more of those same employees were relocated to help restore sludge-filled power plants for months at a time. To make sure uneducated complainers can flip a switch and have electricity they pay for AFTER they use it. (ok, SOMETIMES they pay for it.) Do you know any other company that let's you USE their product and THEN pay for it? Not your cell phone or cable company. They go out, you STILL pay.

Boo hoo, you pay a charge for a meter you don't use all the time... why have insurance then? I'm SURE nothing bad is going to happen, right? Get a clue.

I AM a former Alliant employee, and I have very recently taken a different job with a smaller utility to be closer to home, and the constant complaints from those who don't bother to inform themselves makes me sick. Open your eyes and shut your mouth. You just might learn something.

Don't be too excited about the "renewable incentive” in this proposal. It’s like the addition of filters to cigarettes—the CO2 “offset” won’t be as relevant as it sounds. It still follows the old “drill baby drill” and “burn baby burn” mindset—just propping a windmill out front and turning off the basement light to appear “green”. The wind technology is there, but it needs to be brought in on a large scale—which I’m not too optimistic about widespread public acceptance to these ideas.

Construction costs have also gone up because the value of the dollar has gone down. It takes more money to buy the same materials and labor now than it did with their last estimate.
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Few people like monopolies, but try pricing out the cost of taking your home off the power grid and being self-sufficient with solar/wind generators.

Anywhere you go throughout the US there is a flat fee regardless of usage. That's what pays for things like this powerplant, line trucks, training, etc. People sure like to rip Alliant but when the power goes out at 2am and the linemen are up on a pole while it's pouring rain working to restore it, the company's pretty handy to have around. Your electric doesn't come from the switch on the wall or when you turn on your gas stove. It has to come from somewhere. The 100 million extra is from the added cost battling the environmentalists and the state for something that is kind of needed nowadays. No I don't work for Alliant, just smart enough to see the bigger picture.

I'm against this proposed plant and I hope enough wisconsinites don't buy Alliant's bs about a cleaner power plant. just think how much energy we as consumers could sell back to Alliant if they spent that $100 extra million to provide solar panels to residents homes (low cost loans) plus burning cornstalks and wood is not poluion free......and Technology is at the point where these waste products will be able to make methanol and ethanol in the near future which will make the Cassville plant obsolete. I can't imagine why in this day and age Alliant would want to build a power plant that spews pollution. Retrofit the Sheboygan plant to burn bio-fuels along with coal if you must burn. New technologies are on the horizon and I do not want to be living downwind of a pollution spewing dinosaur. Cassville is due west of Janesville folks and that makes us the recipients of the fallout.

Looked at the power and light bill and noticed that I have been being charged $8.42 a month for my gas meter to be sitting there not being used. I have a zero gas usage untill the heating season. What a rackett!! I was told by the PSC that EVERYONE is charged that anount if they use gas or not. now figure it out with all the residential houses in the state that are hooked up to the natural gas from alliant how much they are getting from you and I for nothing. They told me that is now charged as a flat fee instead of a usage fee figured in on your usage. Good greif...... they also said that it includes that if anything were to go wrong with the meter or gas lines that they would be fixed at not charge this way they can "maintain" their systems that are in place......LOL
Go Wind power......Southern Minnesota has a lot of wind turbines and at a million dollars a pop it might be cheaper to get their power from them with NO emissions instead of building a new plant!! Oh one more thing the Electric part of the bill also includes a $ 8.07 customer charge as well....go figure.
I think it is time for me to climb under my rock, everyone STAY SAFE!!!!!

or go nuclear... good idea!! :)

Add nuclear, get zero atmospheric emissions...

try living without power, then complain about the cost to produce it.

it's a necessary evil - like gas prices. you have a choice. turn your power off and live like the Amish. It can be done, but the spoiled brats that live here don't want to do.

Buck up and pay your bills.

Coal is not a renewable fuel source. Wood is. You can plant trees to replace the ones that get burned. Natural gas is not renewable either. Definitely not nuclear.
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Renewable means something you grow again after it has been consumed. Corn (ethanol) is a renewable fuel source.
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Ultimately they should be considering to build wind farms over building another power plant that will throw pollutants into the air. Yes the plant will burn more efficiently. But it will still throw pollutants into the atmosphere adding to the greenhouse gases. There is no such thing a pollution free power plant that requires coal, natural gas, or uranium to generate power.

I'm shocked at the increase in cost but am thrilled to learn about the effort to use renewable fuel sources. This is a big step in the right direction.

Just wait, next week everyone will get a mailer saying how great Alliant is. The following week you will get one saying they have requested another increase in the billing rate from the PSC.

This was the second increase. You failed to tell us how much the first one was.