PUC

Don’t Trust Studies Written by Wind Energy Lobbyists 0
- April 8, 2011
Colorado is home to 5,000 wind energy jobs, according to a new, totally unbiased report from the American Wind Energy Association, this country’s premier wind energy lobby. Of course, the study is bogus. I wish I could tell you how the books were cooked. Unfortunately, I can’t read the report, because the AWEA put it
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Advice for Incoming PUC Chair 0
- April 5, 2011
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
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Why Does the Office of Consumer Counsel Exist?0
- March 22, 2011
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
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Ratepayers Lose Big with PUC’s Solar Settlement 0
- March 18, 2011
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
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Gross Dereliction of Duty at the PUC 0
- March 15, 2011
Under Colorado’s green energy production quota, also known as a Renewable Electricity Standard, the cost of acquiring renewable energy like wind and solar power is limited to 2 percent of annual electricity sales. The rules are very clear on this matter. According to the Public Utilities Commission’s Rule 3661(h)iv, “to the extent the RES plan
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Xcel’s Green Energy Accounting: Even Worse than I First Thought 0
- March 9, 2011
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
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