A full 89 percent of voters said cost of living was a major or crucial factor in their votes in the 2026 midterm elections. Colorado Democrats would be wise to read their victories less as a mandate for an aggressive energy policy agenda, and more as a directive to bring affordability to the forefront.
Colorado’s electricity rates over the next four years will be shaped less by the U.S. Congress than by future governor Phil Weiser and his appointments to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC). Weiser has, as of this morning, delivered a decisive 60.94 percent of the vote, with 77 percent reporting, and is headed to the Governor’s mansion. His campaign platform says that “Colorado must lean in even more and continue to lead the shift to a clean energy future,” and he’s pledged to “accelerate development of solar and wind projects across Colorado.”
That will be far more costly than maintaining the state’s existing fleet of thermal generators, and Weiser concedes as much, saying “This work will not be cheap in the short term.” No kidding. Always On Energy Research’s analysts have found that Governor Jared Polis’ 100 percent by 2040 plan, which Weiser is likely to continue, will cost the state $318.8 billion through 2050 and raise average monthly electricity bills to $628 by 2040. He plans to pay for it in part with cap-and-trade, which, to put it lightly, hasn’t worked out well for Californians or Washingtonians at the pump. Even Gov. Polis resisted the idea of cap-and-trade, saying that “it is not an appropriate policy for Colorado.”
Weiser’s influence will extend to every rate case and decision made by the PUC. All three of the PUC’s seats expire during Weiser’s term: Tom Plant in January 2027, Megan Gilman in January 2028, and Chairman Eric Blank in January 2029. Polis may fill Plant’s seat before he leaves office, but state law prohibits more than two commissioners from the same party, so Plant’s successor must be a not-Democrat (Plant is nominally unaffiliated).
Weiser may have to own the fallout of his lawsuit to shut down Craig Unit 1, which is being made available to run under a federal 202(c) order under the Federal Power Act for reliability reasons. As attorney general, Weiser challenged these orders, saying that “there is no evidence of an energy emergency that would require keeping Craig Unit 1 open.” That will be harder to defend after this summer’s history of emergency alerts from the region’s grid operator, which narrowly avoided blackouts.
In local issues, in Denver, voters approved Xcel Energy’s new 20-year franchise agreement with the city, at 68.49 percent in favor on election night. This keeps a three percent fee on Denver customers’ gas and electric bills, projected to be $34.3 million in 2027, which Xcel recovers straight from customers and dumps into Denver’s General Fund. Denver secured a $2 million per year climate carve out for “programs such as heat pumps or electric vehicles.”
And Amendment 82, which would establish a constitutional right to buy and sell natural gas, appears headed for defeat, with 53.9 percent voting “No,” at 76 percent reporting. The amendment may have put checks on the legislature’s efforts to push Colorado customers onto electric heating by necessity. As a more progressive legislature heads to Denver, lawmakers may take the measure’s defeat as permission to attack one of Colorado’s most important industries even more aggressively.
At the national level, with majorities in the U.S. Senate and House, Democrats are likely to push for the restoration of wind and solar subsidies, potentially in a must-pass spending bill to gain President Trump’s signature. The Cato Institute estimated that the Inflation Reduction Act’s energy subsidies could total $4.7 trillion nationwide by 2050. Restoring them puts a finger on the scale for wind and solar and will not be cheap. This may also scuttle, or make amended for the worse, the bipartisan permitting reform proposal, called BAAJA.
Colorado’s Senators Hickenlooper and Bennet, and Colorado’s U.S. House delegation, will be more than happy to oblige. Democrats have five of eight House seats as of the morning of November 4 and three are still left to call. Incumbents Lauren Boebert and Jeff Crank are trailing their Democratic challengers. If current leads hold, Colorado will send seven Democrats and one Republican to Congress.
In Colorado’s predominant oil-and-gas district, CD-8, Republican incumbent Rep. Gabe Evans was ousted, with Manny Rutinel gaining 55.47 percent of the vote. Evans was a bipartisan voice in the House, as the lead sponsor of the Ratepayer Protection Act (intended to require states to consider rules making large data centers pay the full cost of generation and transmission, though it did not pass the Senate). He was one of at least nine Republicans who signed letters urging the Trump administration to preserve wind and solar tax credits but lost anyway.
Colorado’s Democrats are being sent to the Governor’s mansion, to Denver, and to Washington largely by voter discontent over the cost of living. They should reconsider the energy policies that will ensure things get worse for Coloradans.