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Tag: Cost of Living

El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen Announces Run for Colorado Attorney General
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen Announces Run for Colorado Attorney General

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice District Attorney of El Paso County Michael J. Allen has declared his intention to run for attorney general in Colorado. Allen served in the Navy and is in his second term as district attorney for Colorado’s Fourth Judicial District. His announcement comes as the state grapples with rising auto theft, higher insurance costs, and continued overdose deaths.Allen framed the decision as a gradual one. Allen framed the decision as a gradual one. “It was a long time coming to make the decision,” Allen said. “I’ve had people reaching out to me really starting January of 2025 — both statewide, local folks, and then even national folks — trying to talk me into running.” For Allen, the question was not simp...
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Xcel Files $546 Million in Rate Hikes Amid Massive Colorado Spending on Clean Energy Transition
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Xcel Files $546 Million in Rate Hikes Amid Massive Colorado Spending on Clean Energy Transition

By Scott Weiser | The Denver Gazette Colorado’s largest utility filed for major increases in both electric and natural gas rates within weeks of each other, a move that could add roughly $17 a month to the average household bill serving both services. Xcel Energy submitted a natural gas rate case to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission on Dec. 29, 2025, seeking $190 million in additional annual revenue — an 11.4% jump that would raise average residential gas bills by $7.59 a month. That follows a November filing for a $356 million electric rate boost, adding about $9.94 monthly bill for residential electric customers. If regulators approve both as requested, the combined hit for dual-service households would be around $17.53 a month, with increases likely ta...
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Behind AG Weiser’s taxpayer-funded lawsuits against President Trump: Big claims, bigger costs
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Behind AG Weiser’s taxpayer-funded lawsuits against President Trump: Big claims, bigger costs

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Is AG Weiser’s taxpayer-funded Trump Resistance (TM) campaign not as successful as he’d like you to think? ****EDIT as of 1/7/2025. I had some readers on FB mention the link didn’t work. Just in case I added a link that should work below the original Progressive Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has gobbled up lots of our money to fund his Trump Resistance (TM) campaign. Gotta make sure to show those bona fides to his progressive Democratic base. Makes one wonder what his pivot will look like if he wins the primary. Hell, I wonder if he’ll even bother. I remember thinking that surely Jena Griswold would lose to Pam Anderson last Secretary of State election, but Griswold’s handy win clearly ...
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Mark Baisley Launches U.S. Senate Bid, Shifts Focus From Statehouse to Washington
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Mark Baisley Launches U.S. Senate Bid, Shifts Focus From Statehouse to Washington

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado State Senator Mark Baisley has entered the race for U.S. Senate, ending his bid for governor and refocusing his campaign on federal policy decisions he says are driving affordability pressures and limiting Colorado’s ability to chart its own course. Baisley described the shift as a move from state-level problem solving to addressing issues he believes now originate in Washington. “I’m moving from being a state senator to a bigger stage in the United States Senate,” he said. He said his earlier campaign sharpened his view of where decisions affecting daily life are increasingly being made — and where he believes Colorado needs stronger representation. Cost of Living and Affordability ...
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Colorado ratepayers foot the bill for the “Just Transition”
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado ratepayers foot the bill for the “Just Transition”

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Who gets stuck with the bill for the “Just Transition”? You. There’s a lot of detail in the Sun article linked below about various communities and how they feel as if Colorado’s “Just Transition” for coal-fired power plants isn’t too just for them.I don’t blame them. With a vote and the swipe of a pen, Colorado Democrats have hamstrung communities that were built around coal-fired power plants in the name of their arbitrary climate mandates. Quoting the article:“Colorado’s push to close all its coal-fired power plants by 2031 — to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — is creating a major economic threat to communities that have relied on jobs and taxes from those plants and the mines that feed them.”*I will leav...
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New Colorado Law Limits Childcare Waitlist Fees and Requires Refunds
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

New Colorado Law Limits Childcare Waitlist Fees and Requires Refunds

By Gabriela Vidal | CBS Colorado For new parents in the Denver metro area, finding the right child care facility can be challenging and expensive. However, a new state law beginning this year can help ease some of the financial strain. "I became pregnant in November 2023, and I started calling around in January 2024," said Emily Rinkel. "The last thing that I should have to worry about is where I'm going to get my childcare from." Yet that is exactly the struggle Rinkel faced when she began searching for childcare facilities for her newborn. "I put my name on the waitlist on one of the corporate facilities," she said. "It was $150, and non-refundable, and I had to pay it whether my child got into the center or didn't get into the center."By Gabriela Vidal | CBS ...
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New Colorado Emissions Law Expected to Push Furnace Prices Up 40% or More
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Approved, kdvr.com, State

New Colorado Emissions Law Expected to Push Furnace Prices Up 40% or More

By Ashley Michels | KDVR FOX31 DENVER (KDVR) — HVAC experts are warning about a significant price increase in the cost of new furnaces and water heaters in 2026. On Jan. 1, a new law went into effect in Colorado tightening the emissions standards on gas furnaces and water heaters. Units manufactured beginning Jan. 1, 2026 must meet Ultra Low Nox (ULN) or Energy Star ratings in order to be sold and installed in Colorado. The law does not require Coloradans to immediately replace their existing furnaces and water heaters with upgraded equipment. However, when it comes time to purchase replacements, they must meet the new standards. The change is meant to improve air quality in Colorado, cut down on pollution and help lower utility bills. However, experts expect u...
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Xcel Seeks Gas Rate Hike as Colorado Customers Face Rising Utility Costs
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Xcel Seeks Gas Rate Hike as Colorado Customers Face Rising Utility Costs

By Mark Jaffe | The Colorado Sun Colorado consumer advocate says second rate-increase request in a quarter is testing the will of customers and the Public Utilities Commission. Xcel Energy is aiming to raise its gas customers’ bills by an average $7.59 a month — for a total of $190 million — to pay for safety improvements, rising operating and maintenance costs and investor returns. The company filed the proposed rate hike with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission on Monday. The rate request comes a little more than a month after Xcel Energy filed for a $356 million electric rate increase, which would raise the average residential electric bill 10% to $110 a month. In late November, the PUC also approved a $155 million plan to deal wi...
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Ski Town at a Standstill as Labor Dispute Shuts Down Telluride Slopes
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New York Times, Approved, Local

Ski Town at a Standstill as Labor Dispute Shuts Down Telluride Slopes

By Jack Healy | The New York Times Now, vacationers looking to ski are wondering what to do and merchants are hoping it doesn’t last. The ski runs above the mountain town of Telluride, Colo., sat eerily empty on Saturday. Chair lifts hung as motionless as icicles. Tourists slumped beside outdoor fire pits, trying not to think about the money they had spent on ski vacations now upended by a labor dispute. “This is the first time I’ve seen snow in six years,” Alexander Caro, 23, who flew in from Miami with his family, said as he looked hungrily at the base of the ski mountain, now blocked off by “closed” signs. A few feet away, a golden Labrador retriever played fetch in the snow beside the resort’s shuttered main lift. It was the closest anyone would ge...
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When policy hits home: The people paying the price for Colorado planning
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ScottKJames.com, Approved, Commentary, State

When policy hits home: The people paying the price for Colorado planning

By Scott K. James | Commentary, ScottKJames.com What all these laws, rules, “roadmaps,” and captured processes are doing to the people who actually live here. We’ve spent four chapters documenting the system: Part 1: How Colorado got quietly rewired. Part 2: The rule that choked our roads. Part 3: The advocacy-industrial complex behind it. Part 4: How “public comment” became a choreographed performance. Today, we end where this story always should have begun. Not in the Capitol.Not in a CDOT Zoom room.Not in Boulder conference halls.Not in 200-page policy PDFs. But in the real lives of the people who live with the consequences. Because none of this – none of it – is theoretical. These aren’t abstract “policy disagreements.”These are i...
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