Bill would delay coal retirement until 2032

Colorado Springs says it needs more time to plan its exit from coal. The Ray Nixon plant is currently scheduled to retire in 2029.

by Allen Best

Colorado set out in 2019 to be get out of the coal-burning business (for production of electricity) by the end of 2029. Now, the goal line seems to have shifted to 2032.

A bill to be heard by the Senate Transportation and Energy Committee Wednesday afternoon would permit Colorado Springs Utilities to continue to burn coal at its Ray Nixon plant near Fountain through 2032.

CSU, as the utility is known, has argued that it just couldn’t figure out how to retire the coal unit before 2035 or maybe even 2040. Doing so, said Travas Deal, the CEO of CSU, in a presentation during January, would cause extremely high costs or imperil reliability.

A bill introduced in mid-January, SB26-022, “Challenges Meeting 2030 Emissions Reduction Goals,” got nowhere. It is to be head this afternoon in the Senate Transportation and Energy Committee — after the committee first hears a bill introduced yesterday. Both bills have the same set of sponsors.

The new bill, SB26-182, “Updated Clean Energy Plan Municipally Owned Utility,” would hold CSU to the same deadline of submitting a plan to the Air Pollution Control Division by the end of 2026. But instead of 2040 — likely a target the sponsors never expected to survive legislative scrutiny — the deadline was pulled back to 2032.

The compromise was struck obviously with the tacit approval of Gov. Jared Polis.

CSU in a statement said the new bill proposes stricter state enforcement and requires more transparency from the utility than was the case in the first bill.

“The new bill represents months of hard work between our organization, the governor’s office, the Sierra Club of Colorado and other environmental stakeholders to develop a fair but firm compromise that helps us achieve the state’s emissions reduction goals without compromising reliability and affordability.”

The Sierra Club was more restrained in its praise of the bill.

“We are frustrated by the failure of this municipal utility to satisfy its obligations on the timeline CSU originally volunteered, which will inevitably result in increased pollution from the Nixon coal plant that will impact the health of Colorado residents and our environment,” said Megan Kemp, Colorado policy representative for Earthjustice, a group affiliated with the Sierra Club.

“However, SB26-182 will require Colorado Springs Utilities to show its thorough planning and acquisition homework in its updated Clean Energy Plan, something it failed to do in its initial filing. The guardrails in place in this new bill will help avoid the worst possible impacts on Coloradans, but it is not the ideal scenario.”

For a deeper dive, see: “Might coal be around in Colorado awhile longer,” March 9, 2026, Big Pivots.

No other utility has sought an extension beyond 2030. However, Xcel Energy has suggested the possibility of wanting to operate its units at Hayden beyond their current retirement dates. And Craig No. 1 has been operating at the direction of the Southwest Power Pool.

Xcel is also operating Comanche 2 beyond its retirement scheduled last December in lieu of Comanche 3, which is down again for repairs. Comanche 3 is currently scheduled to be Colorado’s last operating plant. Its retirement is scheduled for the end of 2030.