What readers had to say ....

Some thoughts about beavers in rivers, panic about solar panels, and the politics of Pueblo energy

The solar panels are coming!

Re: A sharp turn against solar in Montrose County?

Big Pivots, Sept. 2, 2025

Where to start!*?

1. We need a South Park episode, “The Solar Panels Are Coming!” Posturing, panicking, prevaricating ensue. They do all that well.

2. They only produce during the day. Duh! Of course that’s when most electricity is used and we have had (pumped hydro) and have new vastly improved (batteries) electricity storage for later. The WORLD is moving forward, America not so much. https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/09/04/chile-moves-on-storage-to-decarbonize-the-night/

3. “…marriage of solar with agriculture is called agrivoltaics, and it is slowly gaining support in Colorado, although the specifics matter greatly.”

Nationally at least 130,000 acres under solar are grazed by sheep, mostly in the SE and TX with some in CA. It appears another 10,000 or more are managed as pollinator habitat. Lots of possibilities with cattle grazing just starting here. Lots of progress in the EU. A fair bit of research in the US and CO, but sometimes I think the researchers are a bit too interested in perfect research results from tiny plots with massive instrumentation and measurements instead of actually getting steel in the ground.

At Garnet Mesa, a local irrigation designer just kinda winged it on the first of a kind project on those 300+ acres.

4. The Dem Leg had an opportunity to over-ride this nonsense two years ago and punted. Again last year with over-weaning local codes on rooftop solar.

Sadly, I think the “ship has sailed” with opposition to wind and solar having pretty much won everywhere we might actually put significant quantities. Because of this, I’d wager no way Xcel can put steel in the ground for its new rushed attempt to meet wind/solar targets in time to still take advantage of the federal tax credits.

Fred Porter, Carbondale CO

Note, the top photo is of solar panels placed near the Garfield County Airport in Rifle circa 2010.

We need more attention

to beavers in our rivers

Re: Dim view of Colorado River too optimistic?

Big Pivots, Aug. 18, 2025

Hello Allen and great article continuing the saga of the Colorado River drought strategy. There is so much talk of this effort and, in fact, it is the majority of the agenda at the annual Colorado River District meeting in Grand Junction. (Oct. 3, Colorado Mesa University.) I plan to be there again and betting I will see you too, as I am sure it will be worthwhile.

However, I am becoming quite dismayed with this continued emphasis on the divvying up of our water source instead of focusing on improving its health —the actual restoration of the watershed which can be accomplished with man-made, nature-based, low-tech solutions. I, as always, will be bringing up beaver and their ability to restore watersheds. After all, they created them in the first place.

Our state has finally decided to conduct a beaver management plan, so far behind other western state that already have, and have boots on the ground actually doing the work of beaver while our ranchers and even our wildlife specialists have pooh-poohed them.

The Kawuneeche Valley Restoration Collaborative (KVRC.org), for whom I have been lobbying for over 5 years, has finally been installing Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs) on Beaver Creek last fall and Onahu this fall.

I commend them for their work, but more and faster support must be provided to put boots on the ground now and not wait for these expensive studies. Even our Grand County Stream Management Plan (of which I am a member) seems to be focusing on monitoring streamflows instead of increasing streamflows. We will not get ahead without ensuring Mother Nature’s plan is reproduced and riparian areas can be restored, especially with willow, so that beaver can return to their former habitat and carry on the work for us.

Here is an video that tells it all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHevZu84mg8&ab_channel=IncredibleStories.

And here is a quickie that occurred in CA, just one of many created by our western neighbors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0RHnIUY7qk&ab_channel=CaliforniaDepartmentofFishandWildlife.

Beaver magic has already been proven to restore wetlands, which are the progenitors of precipitation. We must focus on them at least as much as we do on the divvying up. The Colorado River needs a Big Pivot.

Ingrid Karlstrom, Fraser, CO

The sausage of electricity

politics & Pueblo County

Re: Pueblo County refuses to repudiate plea to Trump

Big Pivots, Sept. 4, 2025

Good on Commissioner Paula McPheeters for the audacity to call on President Donald Trump and Congressman Jeff Hurd to intervene in Colorado’s complicated energy predicament. Particularly as it relates to the governor-appointed PUC and the governor’s office itself for giving Pueblo County the proverbial shaft on this so-called Just Transition Plan.

A just transition that assumes Xcel Energy, the owner and operator of the Comanche Generating Station, will reverse its decision to phase out the facility by the end of the decade is not realistic; instead, the situation reflects underlying political challenges and utter policy failures.

The sausage of electricity politics has been a recipe for disaster for Southeastern Colorado, particularly Pueblo County. Xcel Energy’s decision not to renew an agreement to sell power to Black Hills Energy years ago was the seedbed for the energy dilemma Pueblo and Southeastern Colorado are in now.

That fateful decision by Xcel set into motion the creation of costs for both utilities that they simply passed on to their customers in Southeastern Colorado as rate increases that are now looming large for the greater Denver metro area.

When Xcel pulled the plug on electricity sales to Pueblo, Black Hills simply sought regulatory rate review to recover costs for their compulsory investment in their natural gas-fired Pueblo Airport generating station, costing over half a billion dollars. Since then, for various reasons, Black Hills has laid upon their 100,000-plus ratepayers what are arguably the highest electricity rates in the state — and still climbing.

It is no wonder Boulder-based Leslie Glustrom is making this a calling for being a constant presence at the PUC concerning Xcel Energy’s Just Transition Plan to replace Pueblo’s coal-fired power plant, which should be converted to natural gas, a good bridge fuel that’s cleaner than coal, making it a step toward cleaner electricity generation.

Commissioner McPheeters should also call upon President Trump to keep his 2024 campaign promise to cut energy and electricity prices in half within 12 to 18 months. May as well have our President and our Congressman representing Colorado’s 3rd District help kill two so-called regulated utility birds with one stone. More importantly, to help rectify Colorado’s political and policy failures.

Joseph P. Griego, Pueblo CO