The Cost & Impact of a 100 Percent Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard for the State of Colorado

As the 2018 Colorado governor’s race intensifies, two Democrat candidates have proposed extending Colorado’s existing Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS) from 30 percent by 2020 to 100 percent by 2040. The purpose of this study is to highlight some of the main costs and impacts associated with a hypothetical 100 percent RPS in Colorado. Because few details have been released regarding the design of such a policy, this study evaluated the costs associated with two very different 100 percent RPS scenarios.
July 16 Colorado Energy Roundup: Sec. Jewell adds Colowyo Mine visit; renewable energy mandate upheld
A week after the Department of the Interior declined to move forward with an appeal in the Colowyo Mine case, and facing mounting pressure to visit the northwest portion of Colorado during a scheduled trip to Aspen, Sec. Sally Jewell appears to have conceded to a meeting with county commissioners: Moffat County Commissioner John Kinkaid […]
July 9 Colorado Energy Roundup: government won't appeal in Colowyo case, true costs of wind energy revealed
Perhaps the most pressing energy and jobs-related issue in Colorado right now is the legal battle over the Colowyo Mine in the northwest part of the state: The U.S. Department of the Interior has decided not to pursue an appeal of a federal court ruling that threatened to close Colowyo coal mine in Northwest Colorado. […]
July 9 Colorado Energy Roundup: government won’t appeal in Colowyo case, true costs of wind energy revealed
Perhaps the most pressing energy and jobs-related issue in Colorado right now is the legal battle over the Colowyo Mine in the northwest part of the state: The U.S. Department of the Interior has decided not to pursue an appeal of a federal court ruling that threatened to close Colowyo coal mine in Northwest Colorado. […]
Colorado’s cruel approach to energy policy
By Amy Oliver Cooke “Giving society cheap, abundant energy would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun,” wrote environmental doomsday prophet Dr. Paul Ehrlich in 1975. That’s a cruel statement directed at people who simply want electric lights so their children can read at night, a refrigerator to keep food from […]
Progressive criticism of PUC nominee Vaad is about ALEC rather than energy
Progressive left logic: Progressives want to destroy ALEC. Moderate Republican PUC nominee Glenn Vaad has been a member of ALEC. Therefore progressives want to destroy Glenn Vaad even though he has supported increasing Colorado’s renewable energy mandate and fuel switching. The progressive left’s criticism of Governor John Hickenlooper’s appointment of former State Representative Glenn Vaad […]
No love for reality of “renewable” energy in North Carolina
A newly released survey provides some powerful ammunition for North Carolina lawmakers who want to freeze the state’s renewable energy mandate at its current level rather than continue its increase to meet the 12.5 percent mandate by 2021. The Raleigh, North Carolina, based Civitas Institute conducted the state-wide poll and found that while residents like […]
Highlights and lowlights of SB252 testimony
Despite close to seven hours of testimony on SB13-252, a bill to raise the renewable energy mandate 150 percent on rural electric co-ops, it is very clear that the bill’s prime sponsors Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) and Senator Gail Schwartz (D-Snowmass) do not understand their own bill and didn’t bother to consult those […]
Instability of sustainability: green agenda ignores science and technology
Could this happen in Colorado? Maybe… A Wall Street Journal article reports what some in Colorado’s energy industry know, too much reliance on wind and solar can make an electric grid unstable and lead to power outages. California regulators and energy companies met last week out of fear that the state’s electric grid is so […]
David Schnare: We’re putting global warming on trial in Colorado
David Schnare, the Director of Environmental Law Center at the American Tradition Institute and lead attorney in a lawsuit (ATI v. Epel) against Colorado’s 30 percent renewable energy mandate said in an interview on the Amy Oliver Show on Thursday that global warming will be put on trial when he argues that the mandate violates […]
A high tab: NREL’s $135 million toast
I didn’t make up this. The Denver Post lede paragraph in a story about the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is almost laughable: Hooking a toaster oven to a solar panel is not an easy thing, but the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s new $135 million integrated energy facility will able do just that. While it […]
A high tab: NREL's $135 million toast
I didn’t make up this. The Denver Post lede paragraph in a story about the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is almost laughable: Hooking a toaster oven to a solar panel is not an easy thing, but the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s new $135 million integrated energy facility will able do just that. While it […]