Advice for Incoming PUC Chair
For 4 years, Public Utilities Commission Chair Ron Binz has been a key driver of the New Energy Economy. Under his watch, the PUC changed its mission, from advancing lowest cost electricity, to fighting climate change with expensive green energy. As was first reported here, Binz is leaving life as an environmentalist PUC Chair, for […]
Renewable energy mandates unconstitutional?
We know they are costly but are renewable energy mandates such as Colorado’s 30 percent mandate unconstitutional as well? Yes according to the American Tradition Institute, which “filed a complaint in a U.S. district court that contends Colorado’s RES should be declared unconstitutional because they violate the Commerce Clause, which grants only Congress the authority to […]
Why Does the Office of Consumer Counsel Exist?
As I explain here, two thirds of the Public Utilities Commission care more about advancing “green” energy, than they do about ratepayer protection. I’m sad to say that the same holds true for the Office of Consumer Counsel. Evidently, in Colorado, ratepayers don’t have a public sector advocate. By any rational calculation, Xcel’s Solar*Rewards program […]
Ratepayers Lose Big with PUC’s Solar Settlement
This afternoon the Public Utilities Commission approved a Settlement Agreement to end the Solar*Rewards imbroglio. The Settlement Parties were Xcel, the Office of Consumer Council, the Governor’s Energy Office, Western Resource Advocates, Colorado Solar Energy Industry Association, the Solar Alliance, and Public Utilities Commission Staff. As I explain in detail here, the underlying cause of […]
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 […]
Xcel’s Green Energy Accounting: Even Worse than I First Thought
In a recent post, I explained how Xcel maneuvers around the 2 percent annual rate cap on green energy spending. In a nutshell, the utility avoids the rate cap with accounting tricks that function to underestimate the cost of renewable energy and overestimate the cost convention energy. Thus, Xcel suppresses the annual “incremental cost” of […]
Fact of the Day: Xcel’s Projected Revenues Far Exceed Projected Sales
Through 2020, Xcel projects energy sales to increase an average of 1.1 percent annually, but it projects sales revenue to increase 4.7 percent annually, according to its 2009 Renewable Electricity Standard compliance plan. Why would revenue outpace sales by such a significant margin? The answer, of course, is that green energy costs more than conventional […]
Xcel's tiered rates penalize families
This is personal. I have a big family that includes me, my husband, my three kids, two dogs, a cat and during the last two summers — two additional house guests. In 2009, we hosted two college-aged baseball players for the summer. We had seven people living in a 5000 square foot house. According to our […]
In Addition to Being Cost-Ineffective, Xcel’s Solar*Rewards Subsidy Is Regressive
In addition to being cost-effective—even by solar power’s expensive standards—Xcel’s controversial Solar*Rewards subsidy program is also regressive. That is, it’s a subsidy for the rich, borne disproportionately by the poor. Elsewhere, I discuss how Solar*Rewards program, a far-too-generous subsidy for the installation of solar photovoltaic panels, became a political hot potato in Colorado (for a […]
Where is Xcel Hiding the Cost of Wind Power?
Under Colorado’s Renewable Electricity Standard, investor-owned utilities in Colorado must generate 12 percent of their electricity from renewable energy this year. The requirement was 5 percent last year. By 2020, it is 30 percent. Renewable energy sources like wind and solar cost more than conventional energy sources like coal and gas, but Colorado lawmakers sought […]
Preview of PUC Deliberations on Solar*Rewards Program
At 11:00 AM this morning, the PUC will take up Docket No. 11A-135E, “In the Matter of the Application of Public Service Company of Colorado for Approval of a Reduction in the Standard Rebate Offer.” In less lawyerly terms, the hearing is on Xcel’s request to lower solar subsidies. The issue is a political hot-potato […]
Only job Ritter created was his own
In a recent New York Times editorial former Governor Bill Ritter reveals the magic formula for states with struggling economies – just “create” green jobs the way he did in Colorado! In reality, the only job he created was his own. Ritter starts by empathizing with other governors as they wrestle “with budget issues, making […]
