Dirty secret: EPA & CDPHE coercion, not collaboration, led to CO methane rules
Just as President Trump and new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt begin dialing back Obama-era regulations, Governor John Hickenlooper is erroneously trying to paint Colorado’s “model” methane rules as some sort of industry-environmental Kumbaya. A week ago Sunday on Meet the Press the Democrat and possible 2020 presidential campaign contender told host […]
Optimism for the EPA in the Age of Trump
With the confirmation of former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to become the next head of the Environmental Protection Agency, President Trump is ready to make good on some of his campaign promises to roll back several of President Obama’s controversial, costly, and legally questionable regulations.
Corporate groups squeal about ending corporate welfare
Rumors are swirling around the Capitol that corporate lobbyists are lining up in opposition to SB17-188, the repeal of the state income tax credit for “innovative vehicles.” It isn’t surprising. Whenever their place at the taxpayer trough is threatened, they squeal like a ____ (fill in the blank). We call SB17-188 “repeal and repair” because instead […]
Storing freedom
For as much as Colorado might fancy itself the next Silicon Valley, the state is stuck in a time warp when it comes to electricity service providers. Could a modest bill regarding residential battery storage spark change for 1.4 million Xcel Energy and 93,000 Black Hills Energy ratepayers? Colorado’s investor owned utility (IOU) monopoly model […]
Black Hills ratepayers should direct their anger at Xcel Energy
Protests and letters to the editor show just how frustrated Pueblo ratepayers are with rising electricity bills and their service provider Black Hills Corporation. I sympathize with those ratepayers, but their anger is misdirected. The real villains are former Governor Bill Ritter and Colorado’s largest investor utility Xcel Energy. All Colorado ratepayers are paying […]
Elections have consequences: Wonder if Dr. Wolk has changed his mind?
Remember when Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) chief Dr. Larry Wolk told the Denver Post‘s Vincent Carroll that his agency was “the conduit for the EPA”? The response followed a question from attorney Ray Gifford that Carroll then posed to Wolk in the context of President Obama’s controversial Clean Power Plan (CPP) […]
Elections have consequences: Xcel owes ratepayers a new plan
“Elections have consequences, and at the end of the day, I won.” – President Obama to House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, January 23, 2009 The same is true in 2016 with President-elect Donald J. Trump who promised to kill the controversial and likely illegal “Clean Power Plan” (CPP). Now Xcel Energy and the Colorado Public […]
Podesta emails: Fracking ban is ‘an extreme position’
This might be news to the “keep it in the ground” folks, but you aren’t on the Clinton campaign radar, according to recently released Podesta emails. Just prior to Super Tuesday, Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders released an ad in Colorado last saying he is “the only candidate to oppose fracking,” which prompted this response […]
Ratepayer Coalition opposes Xcel Energy’s proposed settlement on Rush Creek
Xcel Energy announced that the company reached a settlement with multiple intervening parties on the Rush Creek Wind Farm. Xcel needed the settlement to keep on its already greatly compressed time line as the Denver Post reported on September 6, “The settlement between Xcel Energy and multiple parties heads off three days of hearings before the Colorado Public […]
In Weld County oil and gas is all of us
Below is my column that appeared in the August edition of The Best of Greeley. In Weld County oil and gas is all of us By Amy Oliver Cooke Those of us who have the pleasure of living in Weld County know just how vital oil and gas is to our local community. […]
Xcel Energy, PUC, and OCC are Irresponsible by Ratepayers
By Amy Oliver Cooke and Michael Sandoval Is it time to eliminate the Office of Consumer Counsel (OCC) and elect our Commissioners who serve on the Public Utilities Commission (PUC)? Maybe. Our recent insider perspective on the so-called approval process by supposedly neutral regulators leaves us pondering that very question. The most recent Xcel Energy […]
Seizing power: Hick may issue exec order to slash emissions
Developing story One of the worst kept secrets in Colorado energy policy circles finally is public thanks to PoliticoPro. Governor John Hickenlooper has floated a draft executive order to slash carbon emissions from the power generating sector by 35 percent by 2030, as compared to 2012 levels. Doing his best President Obama impersonation, the Governor […]
