Natural gas double price of coal in Colorado
According to the most recent Form 10-K that Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest investor owned utility (IOU), filed with the Security and Exchange Commission dated December 31, 2011, electricity generation from natural gas was more than double the price of electricity generated from coal in Colorado. A table on page 18 of the report shows that […]
Fun with Fracking…
Energy Policy Center Director Amy Oliver Cooke has fun talking energy, especially when wearing a hot pink “Mothers In Love with Fracking” t-shirt. Thanks to Tom Barry of The Villager for this photograph and his article on the American For Prosperity (AFP) event that featured Dick Morris. AFP invited Amy to be the warm up […]
Disgraced EPA Official Joins Sierra Club
The disgraced former EPA regional official forced out after Senator James Inhoff (R-Oklahoma) posted a video of his enforcement philosophy for fossil fuel companies has found a home with the Sierra Club and its anti-coal campaign. EENews reports: Al Armendariz will take over leadership of the group’s “Beyond Coal” campaign office for Austin, Texas, on July […]
Energy by the Numbers
Sound energy policy must be rooted in fact rather than fiction and reason rather than emotion. Recently, the Institute for Energy Research released a well-researched, extensively-cited, easy-to-read primer on energy. We encourage you to read all 68 pages of Hard Facts: An Energy Primer. For those who want a cliff notes version, a few key […]
The Truth About Fracking and Water Scarcity
This post will be the first in series on hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), in which Independence Institute research associate, Donovan Schafer, will take on specific issues related to fracking. In this post he focuses on the claim that fracking will deplete Colorado’s water resources. Enjoy! Two recent articles—one in the Denver Post and another in the […]
How Long Will Hick Equivocate on Energy Policy?
On energy policy, Governor-elect John Hickenlooper is perhaps the most masterful politician I’ve ever encountered. Coal, climate change, costs…these matters engender passions. They get people riled up. So it’s an awesome political trick that Hickenlooper has been elected mayor of this country’s finest city, and then governor of this country’s finest state, without revealing what […]
Xcel Changes Tune on “Recommended” Plan
A Quick Review of HB 1365… HB 1365, the Clean Air Clean Jobs Act, mandates that Xcel file a plan by August 15 2010 that would: be implemented by December 31, 2017; meet “reasonably foreseeable” state and federal air quality regulations; achieve at least 70% reductions in nitrogen oxides emissions from at least 900 megawatts […]
Review of November 3 PUC Hearing on HB 1365: Xcel Axes Coal, Environmentalist Plans
Review of November 3 PUC Hearing on HB 1365 Primer on the Many Implementation Plans that the PUC Is Considering Primer on HB 1365 Timeline of Implementation Plans Study on the Dubious Foundations of HB 1365 Archive of HB 1365 Posts Oped Last Week in Denver Daily News: Ritter’s Phantom Carbon Tax Xcel Identifies Which […]
Confused about All Those HB 1365 Plans? Then This Post Is for You!
There are at least twelve HB 1365 plans being considered by the PUC, and it can get very confusing trying to follow them all. But don’t fret—I’ve done the work for you! Here’s a handy primer on the plans now in play. HB 1365 Requires a Plan, Not Action HB 1365, the Clean Air Clean […]
[1:05 PM Update] November 1 PUC Hearing on HB 1365: PUC Rebuffs Peabody’s Request for Shortened Response; CDPHE Determination Not Expected till 5 PM
[N.B. The PUC quickly addressed the items I noted in this morning’s preview] PUC Rebuffs Peabody’s Request for Shortened Response As I noted this morning, Peabody Energy last Friday filed a motion to dismiss the proceeding. The coal company requested that the PUC require parties to respond to the motion by tomorrow (November 2), in […]
Preview of November 1 PUC Hearing on HB 1365
HB 1365 Primer Timeline Archive of Posts on HB 1365 PUC Hearings Policy Paper on Dubious Foundations of HB 1365 Crash Course on Xcel’s New HB 1365 Implementation Plans [N.B. I am repeating this refresher on Xcel’s new plans because I think it’s a handy reference] Xcel last week proposed four alternative plans to comply […]
Review of October 29 PUC Hearing on HB 1365
HB 1365 Primer Xcel’s New HB 1365 Implementation Plans Timeline Peabody to PUC: Gas Is the New Coal A Peabody Energy witness today challenged the conventional wisdom that natural gas is a clean alternative to coal. Kipp Coddington, a consultant contracted by the coal company, warned the PUC that, “there is not the information before […]
