Colorado’s Green Hydrogen Boondoggle
In 2024, the Colorado Energy Office (CEO) commissioned a report from Ascend Analytics, entitled Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in Colorado’s Electric Sector by 2040, to evaluate the potential to achieve near-zero and zero greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector by 2040. The study examined a business-as-usual—or Economic Deployment—scenario and six other scenarios that achieve […]
A Critical Look at Nuclear Energy in Colorado: Overcoming Our Past to Secure Our Future
Colorado has played a pivotal role in the history of nuclear research and technology. Being the first state to produce uranium and later having a near monopoly on the global radium trade, the Centennial state’s complex relationship with nuclear materials highlights both its contributions to the field and the resulting controversies. Despite Colorado’s significant impact […]
Energy & Environmental Policy Center’s Testimony on Bill to Classify Nuclear as ‘Clean Energy’
On Wednesday, January 24, 2024, Independence Institute’s Energy and Environmental Policy Analyst Jake Fogleman testified on SB24-039 in the Colorado Senate Transportation & Energy Committee. The bill would have amended the state’s statutory definitions of “clean energy” and “clean energy resources” to include nuclear energy. The committee ultimately voted not to pass the bill at […]
Colorado Lawmakers to Consider Pro-Nuclear Bill
Colorado lawmakers are set to consider their first nuclear energy bill of the 2024 legislative session later this week. SB24-039, dubbed “Nuclear Energy as a Clean Energy Resource,” is scheduled to go before the Senate Transportation and Energy Committee for first reading on Wednesday. The bill seeks to level the playing field for carbon-free energy […]
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 […]
Colorado’s Energy Future: The High Cost of 100 Percent Electric Vehicles
In August 2022, California became the first jurisdiction anywhere in the world to ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles, setting a deadline of 2035 to phase them out completely. Just one week later, the state was forced to call on its residents to avoid charging their electric vehicles because the state’s grid was at imminent […]
Colorado’s Energy Future: The High Cost of 100 Percent Electric Home Heating
What began as a first-of-its-kind ban on new natural gas hookups in 2019 in Berkeley, California, has turned into a nationwide movement. To date, more than 100 cities plus the state of New York have since passed gas bans of their own to push their citizens toward electrification. It has even begun to spread in […]
Poll: Majority of Colorado Likely Voters Favor Nuclear Energy
Colorado voters are broadly in favor of the country’s largest source of clean energy, according to a newly released Independence Institute/Cygnal poll. Likely general election voters across Colorado favor nuclear energy more than 2:1 (53% support, 25% oppose). 54% said they favor including nuclear power in Colorado’s clean energy mix by 2040, with support crossing […]
Colorado’s Energy Future: The High Cost of 100% Renewable Electricity by 2040
Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D.) campaigned for his first term in office on a platform of transitioning the state to 100 percent renewable energy by 2040. In his first year in office, Polis unveiled an official government “roadmap” to do just that. Since then, he has signed into law no fewer than 55 climate bills […]
Colorado Communities for Climate Action, Boulder County Line Up to Oppose Nuclear Energy Bills at the Capitol
In one of the strangest ironies of the modern climate debate, those who ostensibly care the most about combatting climate change are often the most vociferous opponents of nuclear energy. I’ve documented in a previous post how the community that nominally would have the most to gain from embracing the country’s single-largest source of carbon-free […]
Jake Fogleman Talks Natural Gas Saving Colorado’s Grid, Nuclear Energy on the Mandy Connell Show
Policy analyst Jake Fogleman joined the Mandy Connell Show on 850 KOA to talk about his article on Colorado’s dunkelflaute episode that saw fossil fuels save the stability of Colorado’s electric grid. They also discuss the pros and cons of nuclear power and why the state’s policymakers would be wise to consider championing it if they […]
Governor Polis Again Downplays Nuclear Energy…But with a Catch
Colorado’s Governor may not be a huge proponent of nuclear energy, but he at least isn’t ruling it out either. Fresh off his resounding reelection victory earlier this month, Governor Jared Polis took to the national stage with an appearance on the popular HBO political talk show “Real Time with Bill Maher” last week. During […]
