Colorado’s unelected energy board moves to give Xcel control over your appliances

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project, Substack

Low energy, low carbon, and higher upfront cost energy codes are now complete

I have written in the past about our state’s model energy code.** Per the quote (with link left intact) coming from the link at bottom:

“The Model Low Energy and Carbon Code, which is required by state law HB22-1362, becomes Colorado’s new minimum energy code on July 1, 2026. Any municipality or county that updates any of its building codes after that date must adopt the model code, or a code that will achieve greater energy efficiency and pollution reductions.”

That second sentence there is the operant one. Get ready to have this code forced upon your locality as soon as they update their building codes post 7/1/2026.

I’ll leave it to you to read through the entirety of the press release, but there are some things I thought worth special note.

The press release is, as are the other associated press material (and likely as will be many thoughtless press updates will be) chock full of sentences touting how this code saves money. That statement is correct, but with a caveat. They save operating costs and not purchase costs. That’s the bargain with energy efficiency upgrades: if you have the money now to afford to installer higher efficiency, you will get lower monthly bills.

A natural follow up is to ask how long it takes for these higher efficiency items to pay for themselves. That varies and will, of course, not be something the media looks into.

To address affordability, the unelected board that chose the code built an interesting “sliding scale” into the code: the size of the house determines the code requirements. At the bottom of the scale (5000 sq ft or smaller), homes just have to meet the baseline code, but any home 7500 sq ft or larger must be net zero on energy usage. This means you must either generate (or purchase) enough renewable energy to offset your total annual use.

Don’t want to electrify your home? You can still use gas appliances (a blessing upon the code board for allowing us all that freedom), but you will have to buy your way to that by having to meet requirements those that electrify do not have to meet. The language in the press release made me chuckle. Note the stilted wording plus what’s not stated out loud: “Both all electric and mixed fuel buildings will have viable pathways to code compliance.”

I saved the best for last. Let me take one last quote, letting them speak for themselves.

“The code is one of the first in the nation to require heating, cooling, water heating, and lighting systems to be demand response capable, which means they must be capable of automatically responding to a utility signal to reduce electricity consumption during periods of high demand. This will help utilities avoid large investments in meeting peak demand, reducing costs that would otherwise be passed on to utility ratepayers.”

Put aside the laughable statement at the end–who in their right mind believes this will prevent a utility like, say, Xcel from raising rates and charging you more?–and focus on the first part.

You didn’t misread. The code requires, at least in some cases, that appliances which your electric utility can turn on and off from afar, and without your permission, be installed. Is now a good time to remind you that the people who decided this cannot be fired by you, their not being elected and all.

**If you need a refresher or haven’t heard, an energy code is the part of the building code that deals with energy use. For example, it might specify the minimum amount of insulation needed for a wall. It might also specify minimum efficiency for, say, a water heater.

https://view.energy.state.co.us/?qs=3ae67669f11a81d62e98ad86ef72be673c94df34ce464393d71111ae9f110d1c1a2e94bb36809e6114b073ca0e1acb50074fc567e11b7480c23e02391d1c476f907d1b151c05aec04d3b9ad75f0740db

Related:

Not too long after the bill that enabled the energy code covered above was passed, I was trying to get an effort going to somehow get Logan County exempted.

Fruitless and pointless it turned out. Voters cannot pursue local ballot issues at the county level. You can at the city level, just not the county.

This has been the case for a while, recently affirmed by another appellate court ruling.

https://www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/08/29/county-voters-cannot-pursue-referendum-on-land-use-change-appeals-court-says/

READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT THE COLORADO ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT

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