Minnesota law (Minn. Stat. 325E.02 (b)) requires that, privately or publicly owned water, gas, telephone, cable television, electric light, heat, or power companies shall pay a specific interest rate on customer deposits.

By December 15 of each year, the Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Commerce is required to announce the interest rate for the next year.

The rate for 2013 is 0.2%

View the language of the statute.

The rates are calculated using these steps:

The last full week in November 2012 was November 26-30.

The yields on one-year United States Treasury securities adjusted for constant maturity for this week are:

Monday, November 26
0.17%
 
Tuesday, November 27
0.18%
 
Wednesday, November 28
0.18%
 
Thursday, November 29
0.18%
 
Friday, November 30
0.18%

These yield rates come from the U.S Department of the Treasury's Interest Rate Statistics, specifically the one-year Daily Treasury Yield Curve Rates from Treasury's web site.

The average of these five yields is 0.178%. The required interest rate, rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent, is 0.2%

Rate History:
2012 = 0.1%
2011 = 0.3% 
2010 = 0.3%
2009 = 1.0%
2008 = 3.3%
2007 = 5.0%
2006 = 4.4%
2005 = 2.5%.