Finally some outrage over the New Energy Economy
I may have underestimated the outrage over two recent Xcel Energy rate increase requests. The first, an attempt to recover the final $16.5 million in cost for Boulder’s Smart Grid City program. Ratepayers are not thrilled about paying for a Boulder project with massive cost overruns. Check out these comments: From Phil Carson, editor of […]
An 89.5 percent increase since 2004
Ho hum, Xcel Energy wants another $142 million rate increase, and it wants to recover another $16.5 million for its Boulder smart grid project. And in other news, dog bites man. If the Public Utilities Commission denied the rate increases, that would be a news story. This is all part of Colorado’s New Energy Economy. […]
Dissatisfaction with Xcel should worry lawmakers, PUC
Colorado residential natural gas customers don’t like Xcel Energy according to a recent J.D. Power and Associates survey. The Denver Business Journal reports, “Among large natural gas utilities in the West, Xcel Energy was ninth on a list of nine.” This should worry lawmakers because the investor-owned utility has had its way with the state […]
Obama decision also a rebuke of Ritter admin
President Barack Obama put a halt to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed air-quality standards just before the Labor Day weekend. The Wall Street Journal opined that the president cited the struggling economy as his main reason for not wanting to tighten ozone regulations at this time: Come January 2010, the Obama EPA said it […]
PUC under the microscope
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and the three appointed commissioners find themselves under even more scrutiny. This morning the Legislative Audit Committee voted unanimously to proceed with a full blown audit of the embattled commission. Last month we reported that Senators Scott Renfroe and Steve King, members of the audit committee, sent a letter […]
State Senator cites our work as a reason for PUC audit
State Senator Scott Renfroe (R-Greeley) said in an interview on the Amy Oliver Show on 1310 KFKA that information we published was influential in his decision to request an audit of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. Specifically Senator Renfroe cited: Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request for all travel documents for the PUC commissioners that lead […]
Oops! No EPA threat over SIP
Lawmakers (including those in leadership on both sides of the aisle), Xcel Energy, environmentalists, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the Public Utilities Commission and any other group that championed Colorado’s needlessly expensive, likely illegal Regional Haze State Implementation Plan (SIP) have A LOT of explaining to do. We were told repeatedly that if […]
Xcel Energy’s Versatile, Profitable Carbon Tax
To my knowledge, Colorado is the only state in which regulators allow utilities to incorporate a carbon tax into the economic models used to make resource acquisition decisions (see here and here). Ratepayers can’t see it in their monthly bill, but the tax is used in the models, and the models dictate spending. It’s the […]
Don’t Trust Studies Written by Wind Energy Lobbyists
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
