Xcel to Expand Greenhouse-Gas Data

By REBECCA SMITHAugust 28, 2008;

Xcel Energy Inc. agreed to expand its disclosures about the possible impact of climate-change and greenhouse-gas legislation on its business in response to a 2007 subpoena from the New York attorney general.
Xcel Energy
Xcel Energy, a major owner of coal-fired plants, agreed to expand disclosures about the possible impact of climate-change and greenhouse-gas legislation on its business.
The settlement is "an effort to create a new model" for climate-change disclosures to investors, said Katherine Kennedy, New York's special deputy attorney general for environmental protection.
Xcel, a Minneapolis-based energy company, doesn't own any generating plants in New York but it is a major owner of coal-fired plants in other states and is building an additional plant in Colorado, its first such plant in almost three decades.
New York's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, last year issued subpoenas to Xcel and four other energy companies -- AES Corp., Dominion Resources Inc., Dynegy Inc. and Peabody Energy Corp. -- citing the 1921 Martin Act that gives his office broad powers to access internal documents of firms doing business in New York, even if the primary relationship is a listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
Several Eastern states have taken steps to discourage production of electricity from coal due to the air pollution that results, which can blow across state boundaries. New York has asserted a right to intervene in coal-plant proposals in other states by arguing that carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere and affects the whole planet. The initial batch of Martin Act subpoenas related to climate change targeted firms with plans to build additional coal plants.
Under the agreement announced Wednesday, Xcel will beef up its disclosures in annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For example, there will be a more rigorous analysis of its perceived financial risk from existing laws and possible future laws, its actual and expected emissions levels, mitigation actions and other disclosures.
The company said that although it is building a big coal-burning power plant near Pueblo, Colo., it has been reducing carbon emissions in recent years and is one of the largest generators of electricity from wind turbines in the U.S. Xcel Chairman Dick Kelly said the firm "plans to continue making significant reductions in CO2 emission."
The settlement comes amid growing pressure from environmental organizations, state officials and investors to increase disclosures, partly to inform and partly to discourage business activities that worsen the carbon situation.
Dan Bakal, director of the electric-power program at Ceres, a coalition of investors, public interest and environmental organizations, said the Xcel move "hopefully will raise the bar on disclosure" by other firms. His organization filed a petition with the SEC in September 2007 asking it to require deeper analysis and disclosure of climate-change issues and he said the Xcel action appears to conform to what his group is seeking.
Write to Rebecca Smith at rebecca.smith@wsj.com