For Immediate Release: April 23, 2001

Media Contacts:
Michael Passoff,  (415) 291-9868, As You Sow Foundation.
Ann Stewart,       (612) 871-8404, US Information Officer, Pimicikamak
Cree Nation
(Arrangements can be made to speak with John Miswagon, Chief,
Pimicikamak Cree Nation)

SHAREHOLDERS CHALLENGE XCEL ENERGY OVER HUMAN RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL
WRONGS

Shareholder Resolution and a Full Page NY Times Ad call for:
Increasing renewable energy; Avoiding future contracts with Manitoba
Hydro

San Francisco, CA -- Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) shareholders will vote
April 25th on a resolution asking the company to increase its power
supply from renewable resources that do not have undue adverse impacts
on human rights and the environment.

A full-page ad in today's New York Times business section states "Tell
Xcel Energy that you don't want a short term investment based on
long-term loss - Investing in Manitoba Hydro's environmental destruction
and human rights abuses is just bad business."

Xcel currently gets only 4% of its energy from Manitoba Hydro, yet
international criticism over the devastating ecological social impacts
of Manitoba Hydro projects has tainted Xcel as a company complicit in
environmental racism.

Manitoba Hydro signed the Northern Flood Agreement Treaty in 1977
promising environmental and socioeconomic mitigation to indigenous
peoples throughout its vast project area. Manitoba Hydro has honored
"few, if any," of its obligations, according to a recent Canadian
federal inquiry.

"The Pimicikamak Cree Nation lives at the epicenter of this ongoing
catastrophe," said Andrew Orkin, a Canadian environmental and human
rights lawyer. "Twenty four years of massive hydro development has
devastated the tribe's territory and once-thriving economy. The results
are mass poverty, 85% unemployment, hopelessness, despair, and a youth
suicide epidemic with rates that experts term astronomical."

As Manitoba Hydro's largest customer, Xcel has been sharply criticized
by political and religious leaders, human rights and environmental
organizations, such as the Sierra Club, the World Council of Churches,
the media and consumers for its role in contributing to the destruction
of indigenous communities.

A Canadian interfaith inquiry declared that the situation faced by
Pimicikamak Cree Nation and other indigenous peoples is "a moral and
ecological catastrophe."  Public concern has led to repeated scrutiny by
the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission and the filing of Minnesota
state legislation.

Speaking at Wednesday's Xcel shareholder meeting will be Pimicikamak
Chief John Miswagon. "Manitoba Hydro now faces over 100 lawsuits about
adverse effects on our environment and way of life," said Chief John
Miswagon, "such as this year's $100-million-dollar lawsuit concerning
Manitoba Hydro's contamination of community water supplies."

The shareholder resolution calls on Xcel Energy to obtain more renewable
energy - which shareholders believe will solve two problems at once.
Pending legislation in the Minnesota State House will oblige Xcel to
obtain 10% of its electricity mix from renewable sources by 2015.
Currently, less than 2% of Xcel's energy qualifies as renewable under
definitions proposed in Minnesota and adopted in other states. Manitoba
Hydro's electricity fails this definition.

"Increasing renewable energy sources will meet new government
regulations, allow for greater market flexibility, improve shareholder
value, and reduce the growing threat to Xcel's reputation as a result of
its purchasing energy from Manitoba Hydro", said Michael Passoff of the
San Francisco based As You Sow Foundation.

The resolution proponents point out that Xcel's new 12-state service
territory contains the best wind energy potential in North America,
according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Numerous studies
conclude that wind in the upper Midwest is cost-competitive with
traditional fossil-fuel generation and hydro imports. The Minnesota
Department of Commerce reports that wind "is the fastest growing energy
production method in the world, renewable or otherwise, having a overall
growth rate in 1999 of 36%."

"It is increasingly important for Xcel to be in the forefront of
sustainable energy," said Passoff, "both as a means to capitalize on the
fastest growing segment of the energy industry and to meet new
governmental standards."

As a shareholder representative, As You Sow has called top investors and
mailed information to over 3000 Xcel shareholders soliciting support of
the resolution. "Many investors realize," said Passoff, "that Manitoba
Hydro is a small amount of Xcel's purchases, but the impact upon its
corporate reputation is enormous."

Additional information can be found at www.proxyinformation.com
<http://www.proxyinformation.com/>  - Xcel Energy.

The New York Times ad will run in all national editions except the
northeast region.

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