State Regulators Move Colorado Toward All-Electric Heating by 2050 at Any Cost

By Michael Booth | The Colorado Sun

Colorado officials are making another major push toward electrification of home heating and deep cuts to carbon from natural gas, despite consumer cost concerns and the Trump administration’s attempt to revive the use of fossil fuels.

The Public Utilities Commission on Monday finalized a state Clean Heat framework requiring Xcel and other utilities supplying natural gas for home and building heating to cut the carbon emissions from their systems by 41% in 10 years. The utilities are expected to reach 100% decarbonization of building heating by 2050, an ambitious goal celebrated by the environmental and clean energy groups who had pushed for an even faster schedule.

To meet the goals, utilities, regulators and policymakers must help hundreds of thousands of homeowners and landlords in Colorado switch from gas-fired heating systems to electric heat pumps and cooking appliances powered by clean, renewable solar and wind technology.

“We’re excited to see Colorado continue committing to some of the strongest gas utility decarbonization goals in the nation,” Colorado Sierra Club senior organizer Sarah Tresseder said.

Sierra Club, Southwest Energy Efficiency Project and others wanted the PUC to require 55% reductions in natural gas-related emissions by 2035, while the utilities and some state agencies argued for lower targets, Sierra Club attorney Jim Dennison said.

“While the commission’s approved target of 41% emission reductions by 2035 is not as strong as we recommended, it represents a significant step forward in decarbonizing Colorado’s gas utilities, and it rejects calls to weaken the target that was originally proposed,” Dennison said.

The PUC’s compromise, robust in the eyes of the environmental coalition, “will help maintain Colorado’s leadership in gas utility decarbonization and send a clear signal to help drive a successful transition away from reliance on fossil gas,” he added.

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