Tri-State plans to burn coal at Craig until 2030. Why so?
Colorado’s second largest utility worries about cost of reliable electricity with renewables. Environmental advocates challenge extreme-weather and other assumptions
Electric highway to the Front Range from the heart of the Dust Bowl?
Xcel Energy wants to spend upwards of $2 billion delivering wind and other renewables to Front Range customers. But what motivates Colorado’s largest utility?
Who’s on the sidelines?
Major environmental groups have chosen to remain silent as a legislator introduces bill to study community choice aggregation.
Xcel Energy stands by Comanche 3
Colorado’s newest coal plant has been a dog, but Xcel Energy says it should stay open until 2040, a crucial component of the company;’s decarbonization plan.
Pushback on Xcel’s coal plant closures
Xcel Energy wants to close the two coal-burning units at Hayden, Colo., in 2027 and 2028. Others itch for much sooner, citing economic and environmental gains.
Colorado coal plants ‘nudge’ reversed
In the effort to achieve cleaner air, it was one step forward then it’s back you go in a decision reversal by the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission
A nudge, not a shove
Three Colroado coal plants must retire by the end of 2028, a year earlier than the utilities planned, the state’s Air Quality Control Commission has ruled. Still to be decided: Hayden units 1 and 2.
Platte River Power’s 100% goal
A promise of 100% renewables now withdrawn or a model for Colorado utilities? Reactions to Platte River Power Authority’s resource plan were wildly different.
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.
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?
Natural gas questions and tensions
Tension has been rising around the role of natural gas. A new Sierra Club report counters a push by a utilities in California about “renewable natural gas.” Colorado’s oil and gas sectors hopes to quash local natural gas bans with an initiative on the November ballot.
How quickly the tide turns on coal
Closing coal plant is an easy decision. But Colorado Springs also decided against buying a shiny new natural gas plant. It wants to remain nimble.
