Utilities and wildfire in Colorado
California has put a scare into Colorado utilities, but in a warming world more prone to wildfires, there’s already reason reason for utilities to be worried.
Colorado’s decarbonization roadmap*
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis ran on a platform of a rapid decarbonization of electricity. Environmental groups say his administration isn’t moving quickly enough.
Who’s next at Colorado PUC?
Who will replace Jeffrey Ackermann as chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, an agency with a vital role in Colorado’s decarbonization agenda?
Why Colorado needs an RTO
Colorado’s utility representatives and a key state legislator agree on need for market mechanism to effectively and economically integrate renewable energy.
Time to rename Mt. Evans?
The Sand Creek Massacre will revisited again as the Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board reviews proposals to replace Evans on the peak west of Denver.
The future of mountain meadows
Warming Meadows set out to understand how global warming would affect a wildflower-covered hillside in the Rocky Mountains but also the interaction of soil carbon and carbon in the atmosphere.
Super hot to snow. What’s up?
From near 100° to freezing and snow. Colorado will be on a wild September ride. How unusual is this? And can the fingers of the warming climate be detected?
Easier now to get tax credits
General Motors has joined Nissan in offering purchasers of EVs in Colorado immediate state tax credits.
Natural gas bridge necessary?
Platte River Power Authority directors are being asked to choose a path to 100% emissions free electricity that crosses a natural gas bridge. Is that necessary?
Colorado and beneficial electrification
Electrification of building and other sectors has barely begun. Twenty years ago the same was true of wind production. Can Colorado execute this big pivot?
Barriers to building electrification
Electrification of buildings makes sense for several reasons. What’s holding up the show? A new report lays out barriers and potential solutions in Colorado.
A shallow win for Tri-State
Tri-State Generation and Transmission gains a shallow victory in FERC order about jurisdiction, but the real story will be about legality of new members. At stake are exit fees of hundreds of million dollars—and perhaps the viability of Tri-State itself.
Rural Colorado & renewable energy
A new report commissioned by The Western Way finds enormous benefits for the farm and ranch communities of eastern Colorado as a result of wind and now solar development.
Xcel as a transportation company
As required by Colorado law, Xcel Energy has plans to heavily invest in charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. one analyst says that the electric utility is, in effect, becoming a transportation company, too.
Ruminating on water and energy
Colorado and the West have plenty of reasons to talk about both energy and water, but usually those conversations occur in separate rooms. An attempt to bring them together by historian Patty Limerick had much the same result, as she herself acknowledged.
Holy Cross Energy honored
Holy Cross Energy, an electrical cooperative serving the Vail and Aspen areas, has received national recognition for its innovations at Basalt Vista and other projects.
Menu of electrification options
Southwest Energy Efficiency Project has put together a menu of options for local jurisdictions that want to begin decarbonizing the building sector.
The next energy frontier
After successes as a wind and then solar developer Eric Blank sees electrifying buildings as the next frontier. “It’s crazy to build 40,000 houses a year” in Colorado with natural gas infrastructure, he says.
When the coal plants finally close
Colorado’s Just Transition Advisory Committee draft plan calls for benefits for displaced workers as coal mines and plants in Colorado’s Yampa Valley, but it has no answers for the local school districts who will lose significant property tax assessments.
Colorado aims for Just Transition
Colorado in 2019 adopted a law calling for a “just transition” for workers and communities impacted by the transition from coal. State officials heard testimony just before the dark curtain of covid fell, slowing but not stopping the planning.
