Fast Facts About Colorado’s Electricity Sector in 2024
Note: This post represents the latest edition of Independence Institute’s annual analysis of federal electricity data distilled for Colorado. Click here to see past editions. While Colorado’s electric grid has been in flux for years, 2024 may come to be remembered as the turning point for Colorado’s energy future. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) […]
Fast Facts About Electricity in Colorado in 2023
Newly released federal government data offers insights into Colorado’s electricity sector last year. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently published its latest Electric Power Monthly report with additional data gathered through December 2023. The data is preliminary and will continue to be refined by the agency until it releases its final Electric Power Annual report […]
Pricey Electrification Gets a Boost from Local Media
Many Democratic lawmakers, climate activists, and progressive academics see so-called beneficial electrification as the wave of the future for climate action. As such, there has been a growing chorus among this community in recent years calling for the end of natural gas heating systems and appliances and propping up their electric alternatives as superior options. Occasionally, […]
EIA: Renewables Dominate Federal Energy Subsidies
Corporate welfare has long been a feature of U.S. energy policy. A recent government report highlights how much that corporate welfare redounds to the benefit of wind and solar over the resources that form the backbone of the country’s energy economy. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its latest Federal Financial Interventions and Subsidies in […]
Current Pain at the Pump of Preview of Potential Colorado Policy Future
Gas prices are high. You probably don’t need me to tell you. It’s plainly obvious that prices at the pump have been steadily creeping up for weeks. But you might not be aware that prices in Colorado have experienced a meteoric rise far beyond what the rest of the country has been experiencing. In fact, […]
EIA: Coal Still King in Colorado
Colorado often fancies itself as a leader in the so-called clean energy transition. And in some ways it has earned that reputation. The state became the first in the nation to enact a renewable portfolio standard by citizen’s initiative, for example, all the way back in 2004. And the Colorado General Assembly routinely passes new […]
Fudging the Numbers: How Colorado Policymakers Mislead on Energy Costs
An increasingly common theme of the energy policy debate here in Colorado, particularly among renewables advocates, is the trumpeting of cost statistics purporting to show the affordability benefits of transitioning to wind and solar over legacy fossil fuel plants. Take, for instance, a recent statement made by Governor Jared Polis during a gubernatorial debate late […]
Anywhere But Here: The Biden Admin Courts Dictators to Pump More Oil
Rebuffing President Biden’s past hat-in-hand requests for the region to boost production, the 23-member OPEC+ announced this week their intention to slash output by 2 million barrels of oil a day. The move immediately drew the ire of the Biden administration, who is all too aware of what a drastic cut to the global oil […]
Reliance on Solar Projects Threatening Colorado’s Outlook on Grid Reliability
As Colorado moves to retire legacy fossil-fuel power plants in order to meet Governor Polis’s goal of 100% renewable energy by 2040, the state is increasingly reliant on wind and solar to meet our electricity needs. And now, thanks to supply chain snarls hitting the solar industry, our ability to keep the lights on next […]
Don’t Get Used to the Recent Drop in Gas Prices
Despite Governor Polis’s last minute hand-wringing, the EPA has announced that expensive new gasoline requirements will absolutely be coming to the Denver Metro area. According to the Colorado Sun: The Environmental Protection Agency can’t let Colorado off the hook for imposing more expensive reformulated gas to fight ozone pollution beginning in 2024, the agency said in […]
Gas is Dead. Long Live Gas!
Natural gas is one of the go-to bogeymen for many climate hawks. This is despite the remarkable economic and climate contributions of natural gas over the last decade or so. As such, activists and policymakers have made a concerted effort over the last few years to begin constraining the industry and phasing out the fuel’s […]
