The greening roofs of Denver
Denver voters in 2017 approved the green roof initiative. Now, the results are showing up not only on roofs, but in other parts of the city’s new buildings.
Retire Colorado’s newest coal plant?
When Comanche 3 began producing electricity in 2010, the coal-burning unit at Pueblo, Colo., was projected to continue operations to 2070. Now, it’s an open question whether it will continue operations beyond 2030.
Driving the shift to renewables
Legislative renewable energy mandates came first, but lower costs and now sweeping statewide economy decarbonization goals have pushed the pivot in electrical generation.
Covid-19’s impact on electrical utilities
Covid-19 has impacted electrical utilities by cutting demand, slowing development of renewable energy, and causing executives to fret about revenue. Some changes will be temporary, others permanent.
Getting to 100% renewable energy
To get to 100% renewables for electrical production won’t be as simple as going to the wind and solar shelf and stocking up. That can get utilities to 50% easily enough, perhaps even 70% or 80%, conceivably even 90%.
Covid-19 fears and Pueblo’s election
Opponents of municipalizing Pueblo’s electrical supply emphasized fear and uncertainty, the same sideboards of the coronavirus pandemic.
United Power alleges Tri-State G&T crossed legal line to ‘imprison’ it in supply contract to 2050
A Trojan horse, deceit, and subterfuge—United Power says it was all there as wholesale supplier Tri-State Generation and Transmission assembled a strategy to make sure it would have to stay “imprisoned” in its contract with Tri-State through 2050, foregoing savings in lower-cost renewable energy and avoiding regulators in Colorado.
Why Tri-State’s new policies don’t work for these two dissident members
Two of three biggest members of Tri-State Generation and Transmission say they’re very unhappy with the new policies that are purported to provide transparency and increase member flexibility. Together, the two co-ops by July will represent upwards of 25% of the total demand among the by-then 42 members of Tri-State.
Upheaval & Tension in Colorado
In 2006, directors of Delta-Montrose Electric were asked to commit to the middle of the 21st century to a coal plant to be built in the Kansas prairie. They had a different vision. More slowly, that wholesale provider, Tri-State Generation and Transmission, created a new vision, too, forced by the upheaval in the world of energy that is just now beginning.
How a silver mine and a sugar beet factory in Colorado figured into major Supreme Court ruling about Hawaii
Two interpretations of the Clean Water Act in Colorado, one involving a silver mine near Ouray and the second the sugar beet factory at Fort Morgan, figured into the U.S. Supreme Court decision involving groundwater pollution in Hawaii.
David takes on Goliath in Pueblo
Supporters of Black Hills Energy assembled a $1.5 million campaign to defeat municipalization of the electrical utility in Pueblo, most of that money coming from unidentified sources. Can David prevail against these financial odds?
Former PUC commissioner says Black Hills Energy cannot be trusted
In an interview with proponents of municipalization of electrical power in Pueblo, Frances Koncilja, a former PUC commissioner in Colorado, accused Black Hills of being a rogue utility and an energizer vampire, sweet and cuddly by day, but by night trying to figure out how to steal every last dime out of Colorado’s steel town.
Colorado’s steel city calculates risks and rewards of ousting its electrical utility
Pueblo voters on May 5 will decide whether to stick with their existing electrical utility, Black Hills Energy, or municipalize operations. Proponents and opponents frame their arguments in terms of opportunity and risk. The fulcrum for the debate is the high cost of electricity in Pueblo, which is among the highest in Colorado.
Can Colorado show other states how to pivot to achieve GHG targets?
Colroado has begun laying out the path toward achieving its greenhouse gas reduction targets of 26% by 2025 and 50% by 2030. The roadmap, say state officials, is one that they hope will be useful as a model for other states.
The day two aging baby boomers became suspects while on a Sunday afternoon drive to Pawnee Buttes
Out for a Sunday afternoon ride in early February, two aging baby boomers unexpectedly came across drilling and oil and gas extraction among the bucolic rangelands of Eastern Colorado. Looking to take photographs, they became suspects and advised that public roads weren’t exactly public. Such have been the rising tensions in the growing tension around fossil fuel extraction.
Coronavirus exposes need for bigger chunks of open lands amid urban fabric
During a time of stay-at-home orders, many people in metropolitan Denver and other parts of the rapidly urbanizing northern Front Range have few options for getting outdoors in a satisfying way. More local or at least regional chunks of open space are needed as Colorado adds nearly 3 million people during the next 30 years.
Exactly what was needed by Holy Cross Energy: a semi-temporary solar farm
Land with good solar access but potential future uses could be used for a temporary solar farm using new technology by Powerfield. That’s the situation in a field next to the offices of Holy Cross Energy near Glenwood Springs, Colo.
The latest of come-hithers in Las Vegas, the land of illusions and allusions
On The Strip in Las Vegas in December, it was feathery dominatrixes, the newest come-hither that I had seen to this resort built on the intertwined conceits of illusion and allusion.
How this Colorado ski town will achieve 100% emissions-free electricity
The ski town of Breckenridge and Peetz, a farming town along the Nebraska border, have relatively little in common other than they’re both in Colorado. But they’ll soon be tied at the electrical hip. A community solar garden near Peetz will be one among several that will allow Breckenridge to proclaim 100% emissions-free electricity.
Prowling the bowels of Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam’s hydroelectric generation was very important when the dam was completed in 1936, helping Los Angeles became a great city. Can Hoover Dam and Lake Mead become a giant battery tries to become 100% renewable powered?
