COLORADO SPRINGS — After 95 years of pumping electricity and belching smoke across downtown Colorado Springs, the Martin Drake Power Plant stopped burning coal Saturday. Long targeted by angry neighbors and local and national environmental groups decrying the intense air pollution, Drake was one of the few downtown coal plants remaining in any large American […]
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Posted inClimate, Coloradans, Economy, Energy, News
Utility bills burn through paychecks for thousands of Coloradans
For the past five years, Susana Martinez Oliva has dreaded the onset of winter in Colorado. She lives in a mobile home with her husband and six children in the Dotsero Mobile Home Park, alongside Interstate 70 near the eastern edge of Glenwood Canyon, a cold, windy corridor over 6,000 feet high in the mountains. […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Littwin: This just in from Texas — leaving your post in a crisis should now be called “Pulling a Ted Cruz”
While few people enjoy piling on Ted Cruz as much as I do, I have to admit that Cruz’s trip to Mexico during the Texas energy crisis is, as he said himself, a distraction from the real problem — which is that Texas, of all places, ran out of gas, or at least its ability […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Power supplier Tri-State’s members are focused on finding solutions
In the past year, there have been significant member-driven changes, all for the better, with our cooperative power supplier, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association. So, it’s deeply disappointing that The Western Way’s Greg Brophy wrongly vilifies Tri-State in his Jan. 25 Colorado Sun opinion column. Respectfully, we believe the harsh words and rhetoric Brophy directs […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Xcel’s plan for transportation electrification is a win for consumers and for clean air
On Dec. 23, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission will vote on a proposal by the state’s largest utility to invest millions in electric vehicle infrastructure. The timing couldn’t be better to unlock big savings and cut air pollution. Xcel Energy’s proposed Transportation Electrification Plan offers real benefits for Colorado, for drivers and for all Xcel […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, Health, News, Politics and Government
Three coal-burning power plants in Colorado face orders to close early. Their owners aren’t happy about it.
Tri-State, Xcel and Platte River Power had the closures slated for 2030. But Colorado air quality regulators say it must be done earlier to meet greenhouse gas targets. Colorado air quality regulators on Friday moved to order three coal-fired power plants to close by the end of 2028 to cut regional haze and meet Colorado […]
Posted inBusiness, Energy, Environment, News
Only three coal-fired power plants in Colorado are set to operate past 2030 after Craig Station shutdown date is unveiled
All three units of Craig Station, one of Colorado’s largest coal-fired power plants, will shut down by 2030. The five co-owners of Unit 2 at the facility in northwest Colorado last week unanimously voted to close the 410-megawatt plant by Sept. 20, 2028. It’s the latest blow to the coal economy in the area, but […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, News
Most used wind turbine blades end up in landfills. Colorado is part of the push to make the industry greener.
STERLING — Look north from a crest of the Logan County landfill and the wind turbines on the horizon appear like tiny pinwheels slicing bitter February gusts into a renewable and ever-larger share of Colorado’s electric power. Now gaze downward, into the chasm gradually filling with a combination of loose dirt, garbage and plastic bags […]
Posted inBusiness, Energy, News, Politics and Government
Xcel wins $41.5 million rate increase, but Colorado regulators balk at charging for repairs to troubled coal plant
Xcel Energy was awarded a $41.5 million rate increase Tuesday by state regulators, but one item the utility was denied was charging customers $11.7 million for repairs to the troubled Comanche 3 coal-fired power plant in Pueblo. In its written decision on the Xcel rate request, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission said Xcel’s subsidiary Colorado […]
Posted inBusiness, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government
Xcel wants to hike your electricity bill to cover the cost of new customers, prevent wildfires and boost returns
Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest utility, is asking regulators to sign off the its first electricity rate hike in five years — one that would allow the company to increase its profit margins and pay for the cost of increased wildfire mitigation and the state’s explosive growth. If approved by the Public Utilities Commission, the increase […]