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Xcel Energy's top executive told
regulators that his company had an "independent third party" investigate whether
the company had given fraudulent reliability figures to the state, but he didn't
mention that the inquiry was conducted by the utility's outside law firm.
In a letter Monday, Xcel CEO Wayne Brunetti assured
the state Public Utilities Commission that the company's internal investigation
"did not identify any misconduct or effort to misrepresent our outage
reports."
The inquiry was conducted by lawyers from
Briggs and Morgan, a Twin Cities firm with a long history of representing the
utility company. The firm has represented Xcel in various governmental
hearings. At least three of its lawyers are registered lobbyists for Xcel.
Xcel declined to talk about the legal
firm's involvement Tuesday, but did issue a written statement saying that the
in-house investigation was continuing.
Briggs and
Morgan lawyer Timothy R. Thornton confirmed his firm's involvement, but said the
investigation is being handled by an attorney who hasn't done work for Xcel
before.
"There is no doubt in my mind that we've been
assigned to find the truth and we've been assigned to report the truth, and we
will not compromise our integrity for anyone. We never have and we never will,"
said Thornton.
Regulators said they placed little
weight on the company's in-house probe.
"Whatever they
do for their internal investigation is perhaps interesting, but the state has
its own investigation going on," said Janet Gonzalez, supervisor of the PUC's
energy division.
The PUC has ordered the Commerce
Department and attorney general's office to investigate claims Xcel altered
reliability data it provides to the state. The utility can be fined if it
doesn't meet state standards that limit the number and duration of power
outages.
The state launched its investigation after
Xcel workers told the Pioneer Press that managers routinely altered the
reliability figures to make outages appear shorter than they really were. They
said cuts in maintenance, repairs, new equipment and the number of work crews
have led to more and longer outages, and altering the figures is the only way to
meet the standards.
Last week, Xcel turned over records
of 8,320 outages that were requested by the Commerce Department. The company
said it did not have complete and corroborating records on 61 percent of the
outages.
Xcel says it adjusts the data to correct
errors before compiling its reliability reports for the state. The company says
there is no intent to mislead regulators.
In his letter
to the PUC, Brunetti said the allegation that the company tampers with its
records "personally outrages me" and noted that the company's code of conduct
prohibits altering records.
"Providing accurate
information to government agencies is also a central component of our code," he
said in the letter.
Brunetti wrote that, after the
allegations surfaced, Xcel "initiated an investigation, using an independent
third party."
That third party, Briggs and Morgan, has
offices in St. Paul and Minneapolis. It's routinely ranked among the Twin
Cities' top law firms. In its July/August issue this year, the national business
publication Corporate Board Member said a survey of executives ranked the firm
fourth among Twin Cities law shops.
The magazine noted
that Briggs and Morgan's major clients included Xcel, Northwest Airlines and
U.S. Bank National Association.
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JOURNAL-CODE: SP
LOAD-DATE: October 9, 2002