For more than a year, frustrated Colorado lawmakers and environmental groups have struggled to push the Polis administration to move faster to meet mandated cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Now they are advancing a bill to set emission caps and deadlines — over the objections of the governor. The Senate Transportation and Energy Committee moved […]
Erin Overturf
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, News
Xcel Energy floats “Power Pathway” plan to bring wind, solar power to cities from rural Colorado
Xcel Energy on Tuesday filed a plan with state electricity regulators for a $1.7 billion project to build 560 miles of transmission lines encircling eastern Colorado designed to bring wind and solar electricity to Front Range population centers from rural areas. The project – Power Pathway – would be done in collaboration with at least […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, News
Xcel plans to double its renewable energy generation by 2030. It’ll cost consumers $8 billion to do it.
Xcel Energy will spend $8 billion to double its renewable energy generation and storage and add new transmission lines, while closing all of its coal-fired power plants in Colorado by 2040. The initiative, unveiled Wednesday, would reduce Xcel’s carbon emissions in Colorado 85% from 2005 levels by 2030. A state law requires regulated utilities to […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Economy, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government
Xcel Energy moves up closure dates for coal-fired power plant near Steamboat Springs
The coal-fired Hayden Generating Station will close ahead of schedule, marking the latest in a steady stream of Colorado coal plant closures, Xcel Energy announced Monday. The plant’s 44-year-old Unit 2 will close by the end 2027, and Unit 1, which came online in 1965, will be shuttered by the end of 2028. The two […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, Energy, Environment, Health, News
Colorado oil and gas regulators punt major rule changes until after their paid replacements are hired
Colorado’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission voted Wednesday to push its massive overhaul of the state’s drilling regulations to the late summer while oil and gas activity in the state is plummeting. The culprit for both the rulemaking delay and eroding oil and gas activity is the same: the novel coronavirus pandemic that has shut […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, Energy, Environment, Health, News, Politics and Government
Overhaul of Colorado oil and gas rules, stalled by coronavirus, gets going again — on Zoom
Colorado is in the throes of the most extensive rewrite of its oil and gas regulations in more than a decade, under deadlines now busted by the novel coronavirus pandemic – but regulators are soldiering on with the state’s first Zoom-based rulemaking. For now the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is relying on electronic […]