The Colorado Energy Plan: A proposal that benefits all but the consumer

Xcel Energy’s recently approved Colorado Energy Plan (CEP) is what the company refers to as its “Steel for Fuel” strategy. With a green light from Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC), the CEP is a giant capital investment program to shutter Comanche I and II generating units a decade ahead of schedule. The CEP will replace […]

Club 20 and its due diligence

After a little due diligence, Club 20, the long-time “Voice of the Western Slope,” revised its position on Xcel Energy’s Colorado Energy Plan from “support” to “neutral” on Xcel Energy’s Colorado Energy Plan (CEP) according to a letter it sent to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission last November. Originally, the Western Slope’s premiere “coalition of counties, communities, […]

Pueblo beware of Xcel’s promise of economic development

Xcel Energy continues to make absurd claims about its Colorado Energy Plan Corporate Enrichment Plan (CEP). The Coalition and others have debunked the cost-savings scam, but what about the economic development claims? One of our favorites is that the CEP, which will destroy 80 to 90, maybe more, good-paying jobs in Pueblo, is good economics for […]

Media Release: Customers want Xcel to pay for CEP

New Polling Suggests Xcel Ratepayers Are Unwilling to Foot the Bill for Executives and Shareholders 85% of Xcel Customers Think the Company Should Pay for the Costs Incurred from Colorado Energy Plan’s Details   DENVER, July 30, 2018 – Eighty-five percent of Colorado’s Xcel Energy customers do not want to pay the $2.5 billion cost for […]

IREA cites Coalition testimony; Xcel fuel switching plan ‘not in ratepayers best interest’

The state’s largest electric cooperative Intermountain Rural Electric Association (IREA) issued a strongly worded repudiation of Xcel Energy’s proposed “Colorado Energy Plan Portfolio” (CEPP) in comments published last week on the Colorado Public Utilities Commissions Web site. In their 14-page comments on Xcel’s required 120 day report, the non-profit electric provider cites the Coalition of Ratepayers […]

Coalition of Ratepayers Responds to Xcel Energy Allies’ Attempt to Keep Ratepayers in the Dark

MEDIA RELEASE DENVER, July 25, 2018 – Earlier today, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission rejected a motion filed by allies of Xcel Energy, Western Resource Advocates,to suppress critical testimony from Charles Griffey, a thirty-year veteran of the energy and utilities industry and adjunct professor at Rice University in Houston, Texas, in an ongoing proceeding regarding Xcel’s […]

The truth frightens Western Resource Advocates

“Three things that cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”  Budda Western Resource Advocates (WRA), a multi-state renewable energy advocacy group and intervenor supporting Xcel Energy’s Colorado Energy Plan (CEP), filed a motion on July 16 requesting that the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) disallow huge portions of the Coalition of […]

More proof that Xcel’s Colorado Energy Plan won’t save ratepayers money

By Brit Naas A major stipulation of Xcel’s Colorado Energy Plan (CEP) is a reduction in the utility’s coal fired generation. If the Public utilities Commission approves the plan, Xcel will close Comanche Units 1 and 2, which combined are capable of providing 660 megawatts of electricity. In compliance with the CEP, Xcel hopes to […]

Xcel’s CEP, Comanche: Facts versus platitudes

MYTH: “In CO, energy from renewable energy projects w/ storage is cheaper than existing coal plants,” Conservation Colorado’s Pete Maysmith tweeted at me, citing a Vox column as his source. The column covered Xcel Energy’s “Colorado Energy Plan” (CEP) and renewable energy bids to replace 660 megawatts of coal-fired power from Comanche 1 and 2 […]

Coopted, corrupted and busted: OCC, regulatory process need fixing

The regulatory space at the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is the playground of corporate lawyers, unelected bureaucrats, and well-funded special interest groups. They have “stakeholder” meetings that include only themselves. Then they issue press statements slapping each other on the back for their hard work securing a “settlement” that forces Colorado working families and […]

Xcel lies. Reality dies…and so does affordable power

How Xcel is playing loose with numbers and gaming the system in its favor.  Xcel Energy is a monopoly with no competition. Still it spends millions of ratepayer dollars on PR campaigns and lobbyists to convince the media, lawmakers and its hostages customers – the entire state – that it is “responsible by nature.” The […]

Retired KS lawmaker and geophysicist warns PUC against Xcel’s “inherently damaging” energy plan

“Inherently damaging” is how former Kansas State Representative and Chairman of House Energy and Environment Committee Dennis Hedke (Republican) describes Xcel Energy’s “Colorado Energy Plan” in a letter to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and copied to the Colorado State Senate majority leadership and the Independence Institute. Hedke sent the letter certified mail and […]