Walker Orenstein
@walkerorenstein.bsky.social
Reporter for the Star Tribune covering energy. From St. Paul, but a Washington Husky. Email: walker.orenstein@startribune.com
Xcel Energy has asked state regulators to increase rates for gas heating customers by 8.2%, a typical bill increase of $85.32 annually.
Here's a short explanation from Xcel about why:
Here's a short explanation from Xcel about why:
October 31, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Xcel Energy has asked state regulators to increase rates for gas heating customers by 8.2%, a typical bill increase of $85.32 annually.
Here's a short explanation from Xcel about why:
Here's a short explanation from Xcel about why:
Otter Tail Power is asking state regulators to approve a 17.7% rate increase for its customers, which would cost the average household nearly $218 per year.
Below is the company press release with the reasons for the hike, such as ending electricity supply from a coal plant:
Below is the company press release with the reasons for the hike, such as ending electricity supply from a coal plant:
October 31, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Otter Tail Power is asking state regulators to approve a 17.7% rate increase for its customers, which would cost the average household nearly $218 per year.
Below is the company press release with the reasons for the hike, such as ending electricity supply from a coal plant:
Below is the company press release with the reasons for the hike, such as ending electricity supply from a coal plant:
An update on the Isle Royale saga. But still no info from federal investigators. www.startribune.com/son-killed-f...
Son killed father in Isle Royale murder-suicide, newly released records show
Michigan officials offered the first new information about a case that drew national interest since June, when the bodies were found by park rangers.
www.startribune.com
October 24, 2025 at 4:53 PM
An update on the Isle Royale saga. But still no info from federal investigators. www.startribune.com/son-killed-f...
North Dakota, Montana and three southern states are trying to block a $22b plan for power lines across the Midwest that will reshape the grid as coal plants retire and demand surges.
Our regulators call it an 'economic attack.'
www.startribune.com/attempt-by-n...
Our regulators call it an 'economic attack.'
www.startribune.com/attempt-by-n...
Minnesota clashes with North Dakota over power lines
The fight is the latest example of how the switch to clean energy has made basic grid infrastructure a partisan battleground.
www.startribune.com
October 22, 2025 at 2:11 PM
North Dakota, Montana and three southern states are trying to block a $22b plan for power lines across the Midwest that will reshape the grid as coal plants retire and demand surges.
Our regulators call it an 'economic attack.'
www.startribune.com/attempt-by-n...
Our regulators call it an 'economic attack.'
www.startribune.com/attempt-by-n...
RIP to my great aunt Miriam, who survived the Holocaust, fleeing the Nazis after Kristallnacht. She was a brilliant writer and person with an incandescent spirit and a magnetic personality. stljewishlight.org/obituaries/m...
Miriam Spiegel Raskin - St. Louis Jewish Light
Miriam Spiegel Raskin, a writer and Holocaust refugee whose life reflected courage, honesty, and intellectual curiosity, passed away in St. Louis on October 13, 2025. Born in Hamburg, Germany in 1930,...
stljewishlight.org
October 16, 2025 at 4:21 PM
RIP to my great aunt Miriam, who survived the Holocaust, fleeing the Nazis after Kristallnacht. She was a brilliant writer and person with an incandescent spirit and a magnetic personality. stljewishlight.org/obituaries/m...
Reposted by Walker Orenstein
Serious crime is down on Metro Transit, but riders continue to report “quality of life” crime that makes some feel unsafe on light rail.
What a week’s worth of rider text messages reveals about Metro Transit’s problems
Serious crime is down on Metro Transit, but riders continue to report “quality of life” crime that makes some feel unsafe on light rail.
bit.ly
October 6, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Serious crime is down on Metro Transit, but riders continue to report “quality of life” crime that makes some feel unsafe on light rail.
GIP, buyers of Allete, making another splash in the utility market: www.ft.com/content/009d...
BlackRock’s GIP nears $38bn takeover of utility AES
Global Infrastructure Partners in talks to acquire energy group that supplies power to data centres
www.ft.com
October 1, 2025 at 4:13 PM
GIP, buyers of Allete, making another splash in the utility market: www.ft.com/content/009d...
How the Minnesota Star Tribune used AI to bolster its traditional reporting to cover a mass shooter
www.poynter.org/reporting-ed...
www.poynter.org/reporting-ed...
How the Minnesota Star Tribune used AI to bolster its shoe-leather reporting to background a mass shooter - Poynter
A team of journalists relentlessly tracked the shooter’s digital and paper trail. But AI provided deeper insight into her thoughts before the shooting.
www.poynter.org
September 29, 2025 at 3:48 PM
How the Minnesota Star Tribune used AI to bolster its traditional reporting to cover a mass shooter
www.poynter.org/reporting-ed...
www.poynter.org/reporting-ed...
A massive development proposal that Hermantown is describing only as a “communication services facility” was identified as a data center in a January letter sent to city officials. Story w/
@janahollingsworth.bsky.social : www.startribune.com/northern-min...
@janahollingsworth.bsky.social : www.startribune.com/northern-min...
Northern Minnesota mystery project identified as data center
Mystery has been swirling around the project for months amid zoning changes and offers to buy homes.
www.startribune.com
September 23, 2025 at 8:36 PM
A massive development proposal that Hermantown is describing only as a “communication services facility” was identified as a data center in a January letter sent to city officials. Story w/
@janahollingsworth.bsky.social : www.startribune.com/northern-min...
@janahollingsworth.bsky.social : www.startribune.com/northern-min...
Reposted by Walker Orenstein
I've struggled to put into words how I feel about Cascade PBS cutting its entire newsroom today. That newsroom (formerly Crosscut) gave me space to do the most in-depth, informative public policy journalism of my career -- work other journalists continued after I left. The region is now worse off.
September 23, 2025 at 12:01 AM
I've struggled to put into words how I feel about Cascade PBS cutting its entire newsroom today. That newsroom (formerly Crosscut) gave me space to do the most in-depth, informative public policy journalism of my career -- work other journalists continued after I left. The region is now worse off.
Xcel Energy disconnected 52,549 Minnesota households from electricity or gas last year.
That is more than triple the number from 2019, the year before the pandemic moratorium began. It’s far more than any year in at least a decade: www.startribune.com/xcel-is-cutt...
That is more than triple the number from 2019, the year before the pandemic moratorium began. It’s far more than any year in at least a decade: www.startribune.com/xcel-is-cutt...
September 18, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Xcel Energy disconnected 52,549 Minnesota households from electricity or gas last year.
That is more than triple the number from 2019, the year before the pandemic moratorium began. It’s far more than any year in at least a decade: www.startribune.com/xcel-is-cutt...
That is more than triple the number from 2019, the year before the pandemic moratorium began. It’s far more than any year in at least a decade: www.startribune.com/xcel-is-cutt...
NEW: Minnesota utilities are shutting off power to customers in record numbers in the years after a temporary ban on the practice during COVID-19.
For Xcel, the ability to disconnect remotely with 'smart' meters is playing a role in the enormous spike: www.startribune.com/xcel-is-cutt...
For Xcel, the ability to disconnect remotely with 'smart' meters is playing a role in the enormous spike: www.startribune.com/xcel-is-cutt...
Xcel is shutting off power in record numbers
Economic conditions after the COVID-19 pandemic, and new smart meters that allow Xcel to remotely disconnect homes, are behind a spike that has drawn criticism from consumer advocates.
www.startribune.com
September 18, 2025 at 2:36 PM
NEW: Minnesota utilities are shutting off power to customers in record numbers in the years after a temporary ban on the practice during COVID-19.
For Xcel, the ability to disconnect remotely with 'smart' meters is playing a role in the enormous spike: www.startribune.com/xcel-is-cutt...
For Xcel, the ability to disconnect remotely with 'smart' meters is playing a role in the enormous spike: www.startribune.com/xcel-is-cutt...
Reposted by Walker Orenstein
Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, died Wednesday after being shot at a college event, Trump said.
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk dies after being shot at Utah college event
Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, died Wednesday after being shot at a college event, Trump said.
bit.ly
September 10, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, died Wednesday after being shot at a college event, Trump said.
Perhaps more than any other Minnesota city, Becker’s fate is linked to the changes transforming Minnesota’s energy sector. That now includes the convulsive data center industry.
Amazon's retreat from Becker is the latest 'gut punch' in a volatile era: www.startribune.com/amazon-retre...
Amazon's retreat from Becker is the latest 'gut punch' in a volatile era: www.startribune.com/amazon-retre...
Amazon's data center retreat is latest 'gut punch' to Becker
Becker's future is intertwined with a changing energy system, and depends on the whims of an AI gold rush by the nation’s largest tech companies.
www.startribune.com
September 9, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Perhaps more than any other Minnesota city, Becker’s fate is linked to the changes transforming Minnesota’s energy sector. That now includes the convulsive data center industry.
Amazon's retreat from Becker is the latest 'gut punch' in a volatile era: www.startribune.com/amazon-retre...
Amazon's retreat from Becker is the latest 'gut punch' in a volatile era: www.startribune.com/amazon-retre...
I spent a horrifying amount of time reading and translating the Annunciation shooter manifesto to report on it, and this rang true to me: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
The Mass Shooters Are Performing for One Another
The goal of these attacks is to join a lineage of infamous killers.
www.theatlantic.com
September 4, 2025 at 6:31 PM
I spent a horrifying amount of time reading and translating the Annunciation shooter manifesto to report on it, and this rang true to me: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
In the debate over the future of northern MN's largest power company, the rhetoric has turned nasty.
The $6.2 billion sale of Allete/Minnesota Power has exposed tensions over funding clean energy and whether private equity will hurt customers: www.startribune.com/as-state-wei...
The $6.2 billion sale of Allete/Minnesota Power has exposed tensions over funding clean energy and whether private equity will hurt customers: www.startribune.com/as-state-wei...
Minnesota Power sale brings fight over clean energy, private equity
Allete says its buyers would provide the cash to comply with Minnesota’s carbon-free law. Skeptics say BlackRock would hurt utility customers.
www.startribune.com
August 26, 2025 at 1:40 PM
In the debate over the future of northern MN's largest power company, the rhetoric has turned nasty.
The $6.2 billion sale of Allete/Minnesota Power has exposed tensions over funding clean energy and whether private equity will hurt customers: www.startribune.com/as-state-wei...
The $6.2 billion sale of Allete/Minnesota Power has exposed tensions over funding clean energy and whether private equity will hurt customers: www.startribune.com/as-state-wei...
“Do they think that they can wave a magic wand and put the fires out? People have lost their homes and livelihoods. It’s not like we’ve gone around and started these fires just for the hell of it.”
www.startribune.com/north-of-min...
www.startribune.com/north-of-min...
August 22, 2025 at 1:59 PM
“Do they think that they can wave a magic wand and put the fires out? People have lost their homes and livelihoods. It’s not like we’ve gone around and started these fires just for the hell of it.”
www.startribune.com/north-of-min...
www.startribune.com/north-of-min...
The impact of wildfire smoke on health & happiness in Minnesota is real. So is the political tension. For our neighbors in Manitoba, the fires have devastated communities.
Thanks to Kristoffer Tigue & Carlos Gonzalez for this illuminating work: www.startribune.com/north-of-min...
Thanks to Kristoffer Tigue & Carlos Gonzalez for this illuminating work: www.startribune.com/north-of-min...
Northern wildfires have smoked out Minnesota’s summer, but in Canada it’s been devastating
The smoke that has drifted south is evidence of Manitoba’s worst wildfire season in three decades.
www.startribune.com
August 22, 2025 at 1:56 PM
The impact of wildfire smoke on health & happiness in Minnesota is real. So is the political tension. For our neighbors in Manitoba, the fires have devastated communities.
Thanks to Kristoffer Tigue & Carlos Gonzalez for this illuminating work: www.startribune.com/north-of-min...
Thanks to Kristoffer Tigue & Carlos Gonzalez for this illuminating work: www.startribune.com/north-of-min...
Reposted by Walker Orenstein
🚨EXCLUSIVE: Joe Pohlad tells Phil Miller why the Twins are no longer for sale and the Pohlad family will remain principal owners of the team.
The Pohlad family is adding two new groups of minority partners in their ownership structure.
Story: www.startribune.com/minnesota-tw...
@startribune.com
The Pohlad family is adding two new groups of minority partners in their ownership structure.
Story: www.startribune.com/minnesota-tw...
@startribune.com
Twins chairman Joe Pohlad: ‘I don’t think we could have imagined a better outcome’
Joe Pohlad, in an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune, declined to reveal two groups of new minority partners. He said recent moves to trade away a large group of players were not an ownership d...
www.startribune.com
August 13, 2025 at 3:15 PM
🚨EXCLUSIVE: Joe Pohlad tells Phil Miller why the Twins are no longer for sale and the Pohlad family will remain principal owners of the team.
The Pohlad family is adding two new groups of minority partners in their ownership structure.
Story: www.startribune.com/minnesota-tw...
@startribune.com
The Pohlad family is adding two new groups of minority partners in their ownership structure.
Story: www.startribune.com/minnesota-tw...
@startribune.com
@jigarshahdc.bsky.social endorses the sale of Minnesota Power in Duluth. Shah ran a huge clean energy loan program for Biden.
"Public markets are increasingly volatile and swayed by global forces like tariffs, inflation and even speculative trends like AI" www.utilitydive.com/news/allete-...
"Public markets are increasingly volatile and swayed by global forces like tariffs, inflation and even speculative trends like AI" www.utilitydive.com/news/allete-...
Allete sale would help fund clean energy investment for Minnesota
The proposed sale would inject a massive infusion of private capital into Minnesota Power, capital guided by a long-term perspective rather than short-term market pressures.
www.utilitydive.com
August 12, 2025 at 8:05 PM
@jigarshahdc.bsky.social endorses the sale of Minnesota Power in Duluth. Shah ran a huge clean energy loan program for Biden.
"Public markets are increasingly volatile and swayed by global forces like tariffs, inflation and even speculative trends like AI" www.utilitydive.com/news/allete-...
"Public markets are increasingly volatile and swayed by global forces like tariffs, inflation and even speculative trends like AI" www.utilitydive.com/news/allete-...
NEW: Slayton, Minnesota, wants to kick Xcel Energy out and form its own government-run electric provider. It's an extraordinary step and one driven by frustration with Xcel's service and emergency response.
A city of 2,000 is squaring off with a $43b company: www.startribune.com/this-tiny-to...
A city of 2,000 is squaring off with a $43b company: www.startribune.com/this-tiny-to...
This tiny town wants to be the first in Minnesota to evict Xcel Energy and start its own utility
A four-hour wait to shut off power to a burning utility pole was one of the last straws for Slayton.
www.startribune.com
August 11, 2025 at 8:50 PM
NEW: Slayton, Minnesota, wants to kick Xcel Energy out and form its own government-run electric provider. It's an extraordinary step and one driven by frustration with Xcel's service and emergency response.
A city of 2,000 is squaring off with a $43b company: www.startribune.com/this-tiny-to...
A city of 2,000 is squaring off with a $43b company: www.startribune.com/this-tiny-to...
The MN Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling by the state Public Utilities Commission to shrink bill credits for subscribers of 700+ community solar gardens.
Ruling below: mncourts.gov/_media/migra...
Ruling below: mncourts.gov/_media/migra...
mncourts.gov
August 4, 2025 at 4:03 PM
The MN Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling by the state Public Utilities Commission to shrink bill credits for subscribers of 700+ community solar gardens.
Ruling below: mncourts.gov/_media/migra...
Ruling below: mncourts.gov/_media/migra...
Here is background on how we got here.
Upper Sioux built solar for its casino. Now its electric supplier vows to cut off power:
www.startribune.com/a-minnesota-...
Upper Sioux built solar for its casino. Now its electric supplier vows to cut off power:
www.startribune.com/a-minnesota-...
July 24, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Here is background on how we got here.
Upper Sioux built solar for its casino. Now its electric supplier vows to cut off power:
www.startribune.com/a-minnesota-...
Upper Sioux built solar for its casino. Now its electric supplier vows to cut off power:
www.startribune.com/a-minnesota-...
NEW: Minnesota utility regulators excoriated an electric co-op for its threat to cut power from the Upper Sioux casino because of the tribe's large new solar array.
"I think you have lost your tether to the purpose of an electric utility." www.startribune.com/minnesota-re...
"I think you have lost your tether to the purpose of an electric utility." www.startribune.com/minnesota-re...
Minnesota regulators bash electric co-op for threatening to shut off tribe’s power
The state Public Utilities Commission said it would investigate and possibly punish a rural electric cooperative after it opposed the Upper Sioux Community’s solar project.
www.startribune.com
July 24, 2025 at 7:58 PM
NEW: Minnesota utility regulators excoriated an electric co-op for its threat to cut power from the Upper Sioux casino because of the tribe's large new solar array.
"I think you have lost your tether to the purpose of an electric utility." www.startribune.com/minnesota-re...
"I think you have lost your tether to the purpose of an electric utility." www.startribune.com/minnesota-re...
NEW: A Minnesota economic development team convened a meeting in March about a potentially colossal data center on farmland near Rochester, Minn.
One tech company was invited: Google. www.startribune.com/state-invite...
One tech company was invited: Google. www.startribune.com/state-invite...
Minnesota invited Google to talk about data center near Rochester
The record from the Department of Employment and Economic Development is the first concrete evidence of the company’s search for a data center site here.
www.startribune.com
July 22, 2025 at 4:23 PM
NEW: A Minnesota economic development team convened a meeting in March about a potentially colossal data center on farmland near Rochester, Minn.
One tech company was invited: Google. www.startribune.com/state-invite...
One tech company was invited: Google. www.startribune.com/state-invite...