Data Centers Devour Electricity. Private Equity Is Buying Utilities to Cash In.

Ratepayers across the U.S. are facing rising electric bills — a trend that could be turbocharged by Wall Street’s growing effort to capture the electric utilities we all depend on.

A critical turning point in this development occurred in October when Minnesota state regulators greenlit the acquisition of Allete by asset management behemoth BlackRock — set to become Allete’s majority stakeholder — and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Allete owns Minnesota Power, the main electric utility in northern Minnesota. The approval came against significant community opposition and, as Truthout previously reported, an administrative law judge’s report that strongly recommended against the deal.

With the acquisition, BlackRock will turn Allete from a publicly traded company into a