Don’t Let the PUC Hide the Cost of HB 1365
“I have a moderate proposal” was how PUC Chairman Ron Binz introduced his interpretation of cost recovery provisions in HB 1365, the Clean Air Clean Jobs Act, legislation that effectively mandates fuel switching from coal to natural gas for almost 1,000 megawatts of base-load electricity generation along the Front Range. It was a very important […]
HB 1365 Update: Xcel Remains Undecided; Coal Interests Begin To Litigate, Promise More
Regarding HB 1365 (a.k.a. the Clean Air Clean Jobs Act), the big news is that Xcel has yet to make up its mind. As I noted here, the Minneapolis-based utility has the authority under HB 1365 to veto the fuel switching implementation plan chosen by the PUC on December 10. So far, Xcel has kept […]
Does Indiana Have a Lower Tolerance for Corruption than Colorado?
The Hoosier State is roiling over inappropriately cozy relationships between state regulators and the utility they oversee. It started when a top lawyer for the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission took a job with Duke Energy shortly after acting as a judge in a major rate-case before the utility. That got Governor Mitch Daniels’ attention. Then […]
HB 1365 Update: Don’t Be Shocked If Xcel Ditches the PUC’s HB 1365 Plan
Despite media reports to the contrary, HB 1365 isn’t settled It has been widely reported that the book closed on the Clean Air Clean Jobs Act last Thursday, when the PUC selected an implementation plan after almost four months of deliberations, but this is untrue. In fact, there’s another chapter of this story, and the […]
Regarding HB 1365, Here Are Two Numbers To Remember
$8 Doesn’t anyone remember the summer of 2008 when natural gas prices spiked to $8 dollar/mmbtu? Currently, coal supplies almost 70% of Xcel’s electricity portfolio; In 2018, thanks to the Clean Air Clean Jobs Act, coal will supply less than half, while natural gas’s share will increase to more than 40%. The upshot is that […]
Review of December 8 PUC Hearing on HB 1365: PUC Punts
The PUC decided almost nothing during four hours of deliberations yesterday. The two major issues discussed were cost recovery and what to do with the 352 megawatt Cherokee 4 coal fired power plant in Adams county. Regarding cost-recovery, the debate focused on timing. Xcel wants to be paid up front for the investments required to […]
PUC Chair spends lots of time out of the office
Just about the time that Xcel Energy customers have recovered from the sticker shock of this summer’s air conditioner tax, ratepayers await another decision from the Public Utilities Commission on how much more their bills will increase – this time due to HB 1365, the controversial fuel-switching bill. Our paper “Colorado’s Clean Air Clean Jobs […]
Heading into HB 1365 Crunch Time, A Rundown of Who Is Hoping for What
As reported yesterday by Mark Jaffe in the Denver Post, the PUC on Monday partially ruled on Xcel’s HB 1365 implementation plan. Nothing controversial was determined; instead, the PUC approved elements that were common to all of the plans “on the table.”* The disputed subject matter was left for today—namely, what is to be done […]
Why Wouldn’t Wirth Say “New Energy Economy”?
Governor Bill Ritter takes a great deal of pride in having coined the phrase “New Energy Economy” to describe the raft of expensive energy policies his administration has pushed through the General Assembly. Earlier this year in Aspen, for example, Governor Ritter noted that, “If you Google it [the phrase “New Energy Economy], I think […]
Primer for Forthcoming PUC Decision on Boulder’s Smart Grid City
As the Denver Post’s Mark Jaffe noted, sometime soon the PUC is expected to make a major ruling on Boulder’s Smart Grid City (“SCG”), a pilot project for so-called “smart grid” technologies that has been much maligned for costing Xcel three times what the utility had initially estimated. Specifically, the PUC will rule on a […]
Disorder in the Court! Disgusted PUC Staff Threatens To Walk Out over Xcel’s Discovery Gaffe
On Saturday morning, a defiant PUC Staff threatened to walk out of proceedings on the Clean Air Clean Jobs Act unless the PUC agreed to disqualify an accelerated version of Xcel “preferred” HB 1365 implementation plan. This unprecedented outburst was precipitated by the revelation that Xcel had failed to fully comply with a discovery request. […]
Xcel Changes Tune on “Recommended” Plan
A Quick Review of HB 1365… HB 1365, the Clean Air Clean Jobs Act, mandates that Xcel file a plan by August 15 2010 that would: be implemented by December 31, 2017; meet “reasonably foreseeable” state and federal air quality regulations; achieve at least 70% reductions in nitrogen oxides emissions from at least 900 megawatts […]
