Smart Thermostats Are Looking Like Dumb Policy
Earlier this month Xcel Energy made national headlines when it locked out 22,000 customers in Colorado from adjusting their thermostats as temperatures rose into the 90s. Those affected were customers who had signed up for the Colorado AC Rewards program, which allows the company to adjust the temperature setting on internet-connected “smart thermostats.” In exchange […]
Independence Institute Tells the Public Utilities Commission to Pump the Brakes on De-Facto Gas Ban
The PUC is holding a Zoom public comment hearing on these rules on Monday, September 19th at 9am. People who wish to participate in that hearing can find more information here. They can also submit written comments referencing Proceeding No. 21R-0449G by clicking here. In the 2021 legislative session, the Colorado General Assembly passed SB21-264, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Xcel paying power producers to take excess electricity?
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I’ve documented that Xcel Energy has excess electricity generation capacity. I just didn’t realize how much. According to a source close to an electricity wholesaler and generator, “Right now they can buy power cheaper than they can make it. A week or two ago Excel [sic] was paying us $18 a MW to buy power from […]
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 […]
The absurdity of Demand Side Management and social engineering electricity use
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“For every dollar spent, consumers save $1.77,” say supporters of so-called Demand Side Management (DSM) programs. Want to really save ratepayers money? How about not incentivizing utility monopolies to spend the dollar in the first place and just let ratepayers save 77 cents or more through lower electric rates? Here is the gist of DSM: […]
Legislative Update: hearing highlights, testimony, rent seeking, and reconsideration
SB17-188: “Repeal Income Tax Credit on Innovative Motor Vehicles,” or, as we like to call it the “repeal and repair” bill because money that would go to wealthy electric vehicle owners and corporations will instead be directed to roads and bridges. The bill passed out of Senate Finance on February 28 on a party line […]
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 […]
Three bad House bills gives Senate GOP opportunity to stand up for ratepayers
For the better part of a decade, Colorado energy policy has been a textbook case of state government selected winners and losers. Ratepayers and working families, at the mercy of Democrat controlled legislature and executive branch, have held the losing hand. While special interest environmental left groups such as Conservation Colorado, the Sierra Club, WildEarth […]
Extending Demand Side Management is irresponsible by ratepayers
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Riddle me this. Based on the following clues, can you guess the product/service, the company, and the program? It’s an out-of-state private monopoly that enjoys most favored corporation status under the Gold Dome. The favored monopoly has more supply/capacity than its customers use and anticipates this to be the case in the near future. The […]
In 2011, the New Energy Economy Will Cost Coloradans…
For all the ink that Colorado’s public officials have spilled on the subject of the New Energy Economy, there’s been little discussion of its cost. Ex-Governor Bill Ritter, for example, recently took to the pages of the New York Times to brag about his energy legacy. While he made an unsubstantiated claim about creating “thousands […]
