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 […]
Black Hills ratepayers should direct their anger at Xcel Energy
Protests and letters to the editor show just how frustrated Pueblo ratepayers are with rising electricity bills and their service provider Black Hills Corporation. I sympathize with those ratepayers, but their anger is misdirected. The real villains are former Governor Bill Ritter and Colorado’s largest investor utility Xcel Energy. All Colorado ratepayers are paying […]
Elections have consequences: Wonder if Dr. Wolk has changed his mind?
Remember when Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) chief Dr. Larry Wolk told the Denver Post‘s Vincent Carroll that his agency was “the conduit for the EPA”? The response followed a question from attorney Ray Gifford that Carroll then posed to Wolk in the context of President Obama’s controversial Clean Power Plan (CPP) […]
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 […]
Ratepayer Coalition opposes Xcel Energy’s proposed settlement on Rush Creek
Xcel Energy announced that the company reached a settlement with multiple intervening parties on the Rush Creek Wind Farm. Xcel needed the settlement to keep on its already greatly compressed time line as the Denver Post reported on September 6, “The settlement between Xcel Energy and multiple parties heads off three days of hearings before the Colorado Public […]
Xcel Energy, PUC, and OCC are Irresponsible by Ratepayers
By Amy Oliver Cooke and Michael Sandoval Is it time to eliminate the Office of Consumer Counsel (OCC) and elect our Commissioners who serve on the Public Utilities Commission (PUC)? Maybe. Our recent insider perspective on the so-called approval process by supposedly neutral regulators leaves us pondering that very question. The most recent Xcel Energy […]
Seizing power: Hick may issue exec order to slash emissions
Developing story One of the worst kept secrets in Colorado energy policy circles finally is public thanks to PoliticoPro. Governor John Hickenlooper has floated a draft executive order to slash carbon emissions from the power generating sector by 35 percent by 2030, as compared to 2012 levels. Doing his best President Obama impersonation, the Governor […]
The ‘War On Coal’ threatens a sleepy Colorado mining town
(Craig Station, Moffat County, Colorado. Photo: Michael Sandoval) CRAIG, Colo. — Coal, from extraction to use as a generation source, forms the literal bedrock of Craig. (Welcome to Craig. Photo: Michael Sandoval) The past few years have shaken the once quiet town, as an onslaught of federal government regulations and actions by environmental activists bent […]
Press release: Xcel Energy, irresponsible by nature and ratepayers?
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]For immediate release July 6, 2016 Contact: Michael Sandoval 303-279-6536, ext. 124 michael@i2i.org Contact: Amy Cooke 303-279-6536, ext. 107 amy@i2i.org Don’t Rush ‘Rush Creek’: Xcel’s wind project irresponsible by nature, think tank study says DENVER, Colo — Colorado ratepayers and taxpayers face uncertainty if the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) grants expedited approval on Xcel Energy’s […]
When it comes to Xcel, where do hundreds of millions of dollars come from?
By Cortney Crouch On April 12, 2016, the Denver Business Journal published an article, “Xcel, Vestas to build Colorado’s biggest wind farm,” in which David Eves, the President and CEO of Public Service Company of Colorado, stated that the newly announced 600-MW wind farm that PSCo would be building in partnership with Vestas would mean […]
Despite skyrocketing electricity rates, former Gov. Ritter says voters ‘willing to pay more’
On April 11, 2016, former Colorado Governor, Bill Ritter, spoke to Colorado Public Radio host Ryan Warner about renewable energy and energy costs in Colorado. Warner pressed Ritter on the issue of costs, saying: Cost is central, central to the debate that is raging in the courts right now, in the state legislature, over the […]
Energy Policy Center Report: Electricity Rates Skyrocket across all Colorado Sectors
Data obtained by the Independence Institute from the Energy Information Administration and the U.S. Census Bureau showed an increase in electricity rates for residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation sectors throughout the state contributing to the across-the-board growth in prices.
