Tax reform brings ratepayer relief across country but not in Colorado
Across the country, utility regulators and elected officials are asking regulated monopolies in their states how they plan to pass along to customers savings from lower tax rates due to the federal tax act. Many utilities are responding. Customers from Boston to Portland are seeing their rates slashed due to the decreased the U.S. corporate […]
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 […]
Public support for Xcel’s controversial plan? The rest of the story…
By Amy Oliver Cooke with contributor Tyson Thornburg A cursory review of the emails and letters sent to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) seems to indicate significant support for Xcel Energy’s costly and controversial Colorado Energy Plan. Our guess is that’s exactly what Xcel wants the media, the public, and the PUC to believe. […]
Continental Army versus British Empire: coalition opposes Xcel’s latest money grab
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 […]
Money and power in Colorado
How the state’s largest monopoly utilities have benefited financially in former Governor Bill Ritter’s New Energy Economy. By Brit Naas Executive Summary The last ten years of Colorado energy policy can be defined as the decade of what former Democrat Governor Bill Ritter dubbed the “New Energy Economy,” (NEE) a fundamental transformation of how the state […]
Colorado’s electricity rates continue to rise
By Grant Mandigora Executive Summary In 2001, Colorado electricity consumers enjoyed some of the lowest electric rates in the country. The 15 years since haven’t been so kind to ratepayers. For more than a decade, elected officials, PUC commissioners, industry and advocates have told Colorado ratepayers that they could transform the state’s electricity generation away […]
Regulators expand their authority, play politics with carbon at ratepayer expense
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]By Brit Naas In a decision that evokes former President Obama’s environmental agenda, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on March 23, 2017, expanded its authority in a way that’s likely to drive up electricity rates. Every four years, Xcel Energy undergoes a resource planning process that outlines their ability to meet ratepayers’ electricity demand. […]
Scathing PUC Chair dissent blasted economics of Demand-Side Management
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Supporters of so-called Demand-Side Management (DSM) say it’s an economic development tool. That’s not true. DSM is a misguided, harmful transfer payment from low income ratepayers with no choice to a preferred group of ratepayers, often commercial and industrial. No one makes this argument better than former Colorado PUC Chairman Ray Gifford, now a partner at […]
Energy Policy Center testimony on HB17-1116
Mr. Chairman, members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Michael Sandoval. I am the senior energy policy analyst for the Independence Institute, a state-based, free market think tank, headquartered in Denver. The Independence Institute is opposed to HB17-1116 not in intent, but in process. We do think […]
PUC 2-1 vote forces utility to model costly social cost of carbon
Colorado Public Utilities Commissioner Frances Koncilja’s concern for ratepayers is limited to the Pueblo area. She is more than willing to load up other low-income Coloradans with additional costs. In a 2-1 vote last Thursday, Koncilja and PUC Chairman Jeff Ackermann ordered the state’s largest monopoly utility to model a $40 per ton social cost […]
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 […]
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 […]
