Alliant reports drop in revenue and earnings

From an article by Judy Newman in the Wisconsin State Journal:

Alliant Energy’s profits dropped 46 percent in 2008, hampered by massive floods in Iowa, and a growing list of factory cuts in Wisconsin.

Alliant will decide by the end of February if it will ask regulators for an emergency rate hike for Wisconsin Power & Light customers.

"It is understandable that our customers find it frustrating that the economic hardships many of them are experiencing could, in turn, compel us to increase their electric bills," Alliant chief financial officer Pat Kampling told a conference call with analysts Thursday. She said the company already has frozen salaries, reduced travel and enacted other efficiencies.

Alliant also faces big questions about adding power. State regulators in Iowa on Wednesday approved subsidiary Interstate Power & Light’s plan to build a 649-megawatt, mostly coal-fired power plant in Marshalltown, but at a rate of return to investors that Alliant chief executive Bill Harvey said doesn’t reflect the real cost or the current credit crunch. "Suffice it to say, we are disappointed in this decision," Harvey said.

"We believe that effectively kills the project," analyst David Parker, of Robert W. Baird & Co., wrote in a research note. Three months ago, Wisconsin regulators turned down plans for a mostly coal-fired power plant at Cassville.