Colorado has a goal of 900,000 sales of electric vehicles annually by 2030. That’s 42% of all sales. To put that statistic into perspective, EVs last year were 3.65% of all sales, a tripling in just two years. How will it get there?
Like the Continental Divide that splits Colorado waters into those flowing toward the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, the state’s electrical utilities have decided to go either east or west to take advantage of new or growing energy markets. But will this new seam in energy imbalance markets remain as utilities seek even greater benefits of a regional transmission organization?
The dispute that threatens to break apart Colorado’s second largest electrical supplier will likely be resolved in Colorado, not Washington D.C. Somehow, all sides in the case managed to proclaim success after reviewing the order from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission posted on March 20.
Building electrification has started to take off in Colorado. A developer of the North Vista Highlands project at Pueblo has decided against installing natural gas lines into the 4,850-unit site. In Boulder and Boulder County, electric buildings are a crucial step toward climate action goals. But the jurisdictions emphasize comfort, not climate.
Bill Ritter helped steer Colorado’s energy transition when governor from 2006 to 2010 and now does so at the at the Center for the New Energy Economy. Even so, he said he has been shocked at how quickly the pivot has occurred.
Colorado would have had Aspen and Vail ski resorts, a tunnel under the Continental Divide, and water diversions. But Pearl Harbor altered the timing and the players, just as Covid-19 is sure to alter Colorado’s history going forward.
Judging from Colorado climate change goals, you might conclude the state embraces climate change worries far outside the U.S. mainstream. In fact, attitudes in the Centennial State hew pretty much to the middle.
In “Science Be Dammed,” Eric Kuhn and John Fleck explain how the foundations for water allocations of the last century were premised on flawed assumptions, and that these assumptions were made disregard of the best science then available. Draw your own conclusions about the lessons applicable to the present.
The water conversation in Colorado has had a giant pivot in the last few decades, as was evident in at the annual conference of the Colorado Water Congress in late January.
Some of us fly—a lot. But is the carbon footprint really that broad? No easy answer here, but you might find a few things that surprise you.
Action has accelerated at the grassroots in Colorado ski towns as local leaders heed the warnings of climate scientists that the carbon budget has nearly been exhausted. At Battle Mountain High School near Vail, Dr. Robert Davies warned that to fail to take appropriation action in the face of evidence of need for a dramatic response should be considered radical.
“Watch our feet,” Tri-State CEO Duane Highley said last October. Today, he announced the closing of two coal units in Colorado and one in New Mexico, which will allow the wholesale supplier to comply with Colorado greenhouse reduction goals. But can Highley keep his biggest members from leaving? That’s the biggest of several questions going forward.
