Review of October 27 PUC Hearing on HB 1365: Commissioner Baker Must Be a Persuasive Guy!
Brief Refresher on Xcel’s New Plans [N.B. I am repeating this refresher on Xcel’s new plans because I think it’s a handy reference] Xcel on Monday proposed four alternative plans to comply with HB 1365, after its original plan was rejected by the PUC on October 21. The four alternative plans are similar. They all […]
Running Timeline of HB 1365 Implementation Plan
August 13: Xcel filed its preferred emissions reductions plan (“plan 6.1E” or “preferred plan”). To read a brief summary of Plan 6.1E, click here. September 4: A group of independent power producers, electricity generators that compete with Xcel on the wholesale electricity market, challenged plan 6.1E, arguing that it is illegal because it included actions […]
Colorado’s Clean Air Clean Jobs Act Will Accomplish Neither
by Amy Oliver Cooke and William Yeatman The Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Xcel Energy, and Governor Bill Ritter colluded to fast track the misnamed Clean Air Clean Jobs Act (HB 1365), which effectively mandates coal-fired power plants to switch to natural gas. The trio essentially duped lawmakers into hasty passage of this bill. They […]
Review of October 26 PUC Hearing on HB 1365: No One Is Happy with Xcel’s New Plan, Including Xcel
Review October 25 Preview: Primer October 25 Review: PUC Deliberations Are Mere Industrial War by Other Means October 26 Preview: A New Plan October 26 Update: Xcel’s New Plan Is Actually an Old Plan No One Is Happy with Xcel’s New Plan, Including Xcel Not a single stakeholder readily supports Xcel’s new recommended strategy to […]
HB 1365 Update: Xcel's New Plan Is Actually an Old Plan
Xcel’s New Plan: It’s Actually an Old Plan Rather than offer a new HB 1365 implementation plan after the PUC rejected its preferred plan, Xcel settled on an old plan. Here’s a quick review of the process that led to the new/old plan. Last summer, Xcel considered nine scenarios to comply with HB 1365. In […]
Preview of October 26 PUC Hearing on HB 1365: A New Plan
Archive Preview of October 25 PUC Hearing Review of October 25 PUC Hearing Preview of October 26 PUC Hearing: A New Plan Yesterday at 5pm, Xcel filed a new plan to meet HB 1365. The utility’s original plan had been rejected by the PUC because it would have switched fuels at a 351 megawatt Denver […]
[Updated] Review of October 25 PUC Hearing on HB 1365: PUC Deliberations Are Mere Industrial War by Other Means
Review of October 25 PUC Hearing on HB 1365 As I explained this morning, Xcel today filed a new plan to comply with HB 1365, the controversial 2010 law to meet all “reasonably foreseeable” state and federal air quality regulations. The PUC rejected Xcel’s original plan because it would have replaced a 351 megawatt Denver […]
How Colorado Governor Bill Ritter’s New Energy Economy Is Like the Bowl Championship Series
On GQ’s blog, there’s an interesting interview with two acclaimed sports writers, about the Bowl Championship Series. As millions of Americans know well, the BCS is the complicated system that chooses a national champion in the billion dollar college football industry. There are more than 100 schools vying for the crystal football awarded to the […]
Markets Should Drive Colorado's Energy Industry, Not Social Values
By William Yeatman and Amy Oliver Cooke Xcel Energy is getting a lot of grief over its new “tiered” rate increase–a.k.a., the air-conditioner tax–but the criticism is somewhat misplaced. It’s impossible to assign complete responsibility to Xcel for this ham-handed energy fee, because in reality the state is calling the shots in an effort to […]
The Real Cost of Being Green
by Amy Oliver and William Yeatman Gov. Bill Ritter and green energy advocates are selling Colorado a false bill of goods when it comes to the “New Energy Economy.” They claim the green energy agenda won’t burden consumers, but their interpretation relies on misleading accounting that hides billions of dollars in green energy costs. The […]
