Denouncing a proposed $45 million Minnesota Power rate hike as "exorbitant," Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson on Friday encouraged the Duluth utility's customers to attend public hearings and make their opposition known.

"Families and small business are struggling to make ends meet in the face of rising prices for energy, health care, gas, food and a troubled economy," Swanson said in a news release, which characterized the utility's proposal as unnecessary.

Minnesota Power, which serves 141,000 customers in northeastern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin, filed the rate-increase request with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) in June.

In a filing submitted to the MPUC, Swanson said the requested rate hike of 23 percent and 24 percent for small businesses and home-owners, respectively, represented two-thirds of the requested increase.

The remaining one-third of the increase would be paid by large power purchasers, whose rates would increase by just 3.5 percent.

Minnesota Power's rate increase includes a doubling of the per-customer charge, from $5 to $10. Including that, the average charge for 500 kilowatts of electricity would rise from $37.41 to $53.45, an increase of about 43 percent.

Four public hearings have been scheduled, the first on Sept. 30 and the last on Oct. 6, before Administrative Law Judge Bruce Johnson.

Swanson's objections to the requested rate hike center on 2007 Minnesota Power revenues that exceeded the utility's projections by $49 million - more than the amount of the increase.

A Minnesota Power spokeswoman did not return calls from Finance and Commerce about whether the rate-increase was filed to cover the utility's planned acquisition of a direct-current power line connecting Duluth and central North Dakota for $80 million.

Minnesota Power plans to buy the high-voltage transmission line in 2009, which will give the utility access to wind energy generated by a North Dakota wind farm. That purchase is designed to decrease Minnesota Power's dependence on coal.