Irresponsible by ratepayers: bill looks to rein in Xcel’s abuse of power over developers
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Working with Xcel Energy, the state’s largest monopoly utility, is worse than working with the State of Colorado because at least there is way to hold the state accountable through elected officials. Since Xcel is a private monopoly and PUC puppet master, it’s the only game in town. Residential and business ratepayers have no choice […]
Extending Demand Side Management is irresponsible by ratepayers
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Riddle me this. Based on the following clues, can you guess the product/service, the company, and the program? It’s an out-of-state private monopoly that enjoys most favored corporation status under the Gold Dome. The favored monopoly has more supply/capacity than its customers use and anticipates this to be the case in the near future. The […]
Irresponsible by ratepayers: Is Xcel floating legislation for mandated CO version of CPP?
If it’s devious and being done behind closed doors, it must be Xcel Energy. Late Friday, two reliable sources independently sent me a copy of what appears to be draft legislation that the monopoly investor-owned utility is quietly shopping around the Gold Dome, in search of a sponsor. Xcel’s name isn’t anywhere on the draft, […]
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 […]
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) […]
2017 Colorado Energy Outlook
In the wake of one of the most surprising electoral outcomes in recent memory, we here at the Independence Institute have been assessing what the next few months, the 2017 Colorado legislative session, and the general future of energy policy in Colorado will look like under a President-elect Trump administration and a split legislature with […]
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 […]
Two sloppy mistakes poison Xcel’s well of public support and entire Rush Creek application
By John Knetemann and contributors Xcel Energy’s well of public support for the Rush Creek Wind Farm, a $1.1 billion, 95,000-acre wind farm boondoggle on Colorado’s Eastern Plains appears to be poisoned. Conventional wisdom says Xcel’s application along with the so-called public approval process via the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for the Rush Creek Wind […]
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 […]
March 3 Colorado Energy Cheat Sheet: EPA’s McCarthy ‘good news about Gold King’; a Tesla will improve your ‘quality of life’
March 3 Colorado Energy Cheat Sheet
November 20 Colorado Energy Cheat Sheet: Sierra Club to push for 100% renewables in Colorado; EPA Clean Power Plan hearing draws opposing sides; COGCC discusses new regs
(Image Credit: Michael Sandoval) The Independence Institute’s Energy Policy Analyst Michael Sandoval delivered this statement to the Environmental Protection Agency’s November 16 hearing in Denver, Colorado on the agency’s proposed federal plan and model trading rules for the Clean Power Plan: In its December 2014 comments, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the […]
