ENERGY - Archive - Independence Institute

Rate increase request exposes hypocrisy of tiered rates 0
- January 12, 2012
Xcel Energy’s recently denied $142 million interim rate increase request exposes the hypocrisy of tiered rates, which were implemented out of fear that high demand would require the building of additional power plants. Yet, more than 37 percent or $52.6 million of Xcel’s request was to cover the cost of excess capacity. In other words,
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Cozy relationship between Xcel and PUC?0
- January 12, 2012
In a surprising move to anyone who has watched the cozy relationship develop between Xcel Energy and the Public Utilities Commission, yesterday the PUC denied Xcel’s $142 million interim rate request. Colorado News Agency columnist Peter Blake (then with Face the State) initially exposed how the PUC, Xcel, and Governor Ritter’s administration colluded on the
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More problems Abound 0
- January 11, 2012
Lux Research, a self-described “independent research and advisory firm providing strategic advice and ongoing intelligence on emerging technologies” including solar, predicted that 2012 will not be kind to Colorado’s Abound Solar. Lux’s Matt Feinstein wrote in PV Magazine: Abound. One of the more prominent CdTe start-ups, Abound has been plagued recently by several departures from its
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Rare economic honesty regarding Canada’s green machine 0
- January 10, 2012
Sound familiar? fuel switching promise of green jobs that never materialize no cost-benefit analysis or business plans refusing to allow “cost-cutting alternatives that would have saved ratepayers at least $8-billion.” allowing the “green-industry lobby to dictate the structure of the province’s electricity sector in its favour.” “high level of fiscal negligence and abuse of process”
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Rare economic honesty regarding Canada's green machine 0
- January 10, 2012
Sound familiar? fuel switching promise of green jobs that never materialize no cost-benefit analysis or business plans refusing to allow “cost-cutting alternatives that would have saved ratepayers at least $8-billion.” allowing the “green-industry lobby to dictate the structure of the province’s electricity sector in its favour.” “high level of fiscal negligence and abuse of process”
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Golden eagles versus wind turbines 0
- January 6, 2012
Time for golden eagles to relocate? The West Butte Wind Project in Oregon is asking for “the first programmatic eagle take permit application that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has received…” USFWS just released a draft assessment in what it calls “the first analysis of such a permit that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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