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Tag: Energy Policy

Before Closing Pueblo’s Coal Unit Colorado Must Guarantee Reliable Power
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Commentary, State

Before Closing Pueblo’s Coal Unit Colorado Must Guarantee Reliable Power

By The Gazette Editorial Board | The Denver Gazette To meet Colorado’s surging need for electricity, our state needs energy from a diverse array of dedicated sources. Unfortunately, with the pending closure of the two remaining, operational, coal-fired units at Xcel Energy’s Comanche Generating Station in Pueblo, things are getting tricky. Comanche is the state’s largest power plant, with an original capacity of 1,410 megawatts. But its Unit 1 was shut down in 2022 as part of the statewide phaseout of coal-burning power plants. Unit 2 now is set to close at the end of this year, with Comanche Unit 3 scheduled for closure in 2030. It’s all part of Gov. Jared Polis’ green-energy agenda, which aims to move away from fossil fuels like coal in favor of renewable energy sources like wind a...
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Colorado needs an all‑of‑the‑above energy strategy
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado needs an all‑of‑the‑above energy strategy

By Rep. Ryan Gonzalez | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice As we all know, energy is vital in policy making. If we have no secure energy sector, uncertainty will ensue. While there are different views on energy policy, we must not rule out any single source of energy (like fossil fuels) for a clean environment that also secures our demand to provide for our consumers.  Energy affects virtually everything from the cost of raw materials to the finished goods or services you see in the market. More rigorous energy policy that isn’t cost effective, only raises prices and may create scarcity of resources available. In the Colorado legislature, as a first term state Representative, I have seen these concerns unfold in real time as they push a very ambitious 2040 zero emissions ...
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Colorado Does Not Need More Candidates. Colorado Needs a Future.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado Does Not Need More Candidates. Colorado Needs a Future.

By Sean M. Pond | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado is at a crossroads, and everyone living here can feel it. The cost of living has exploded. Families are working harder than ever yet falling further behind. Housing has slipped out of reach. Power bills climb. Groceries drain budgets. Fuel prices punish long commutes. Child care costs rival mortgages. Communities wonder how long they can stay in the state they love. All the while, the people in charge talk about saving the world while ignoring the people who actually live here, in Colorado.  We hear speeches about climate and national image. We hear big promises about transformation. We hear talking points that sound polished but solve nothing. What we do not hear is practical leadership. What we do...
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Xcel Seeks One-Year Extension to Keep Comanche Coal Unit Running as Grid Pressures Rise
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Xcel Seeks One-Year Extension to Keep Comanche Coal Unit Running as Grid Pressures Rise

By Scott Weiser | Colorado Politics Colorado’s largest utility company has petitioned energy regulators to push back the retirement of a coal-fired, electrical generating unit located in the Southern part of the state from December 2025 to the end of 2026. The Polis administration is backing the petition. Comanche Unit 2 is one of three coal-fired units at the Pueblo-based Comanche Generating Station. In its petition, Xcel Energy cites as reason an extended outage at the adjacent Unit 3, surging peak demand and supply chain hurdles. The petition underscores admissions from both Xcel and state officials about a potential generating resource shortfall exacerbated by a failure at the Comanche Unit 3, taking it off-line for the next 11 months, and by delays in bringing new “rene...
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Full Steam Ahead on the America First Agenda
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

Full Steam Ahead on the America First Agenda

By Heidi Ganahl | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice A lot of good has already happened in Trump’s first year back. Donald Trump’s first year in the White House has delivered more progress than most presidents manage in an entire term. The border is tightening. Energy is coming back to life. Inflation is easing. America feels steady again. You can see it in people’s faces — a sense of relief, a little pride, a little hope after years of turbulence. But anyone who’s ever built anything knows early wins don’t carry you forever. Momentum is a start, not a finish. We’ve moved things forward, but keeping that ground and pushing it further is the real test. This is where you focus up and just do the work. The America First agenda works — and the next chapter must be about execution, ac...
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Taxpayers Left Holding the Bag After $2 Billion Solar Project Fails
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, National

Taxpayers Left Holding the Bag After $2 Billion Solar Project Fails

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com A decade ago, three giant companies took advantage of federal incentives to build the world’s largest solar power plant in the Mojave Desert, known as Ivanpah. It was “the wave of the future,” a new technology that focuses 300,000 computer-controlled mirrors to reflect solar rays onto three boiler towers, each the height of a 40-story building. The water inside is heated to produce steam that can generate 392 megawatts, enough electricity to power 140,000 homes. Supposed to last 30 years or more, the technology is already considered obsolete. Obama Administration loan guarantees financed three-fourths of the $2.2 billion cost, making it a safe investment for the three owners – Google, BrightSource Energy, and NRG Energy. I wrote a column ...
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Colorado, Western States Face Federal Deadline to Avert Colorado River Showdown
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado, Western States Face Federal Deadline to Avert Colorado River Showdown

By Marianne Goodland | The Denver Gazette This Tuesday is the deadline set by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for the seven states of the Colorado River to develop a framework for an agreement governing the river’s operations. But that agreement seems just as far away now as it did when Scott Cameron, who was named acting head of the Bureau of Reclamation in October, announced the deadline in June. Cameron told the Arizona Reconsultation Committee during its June meeting that Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum is prepared to act if the seven states failed to come up with the agreement framework by this week’s deadline. “Our goal is to parachute a seven-state deal” into an environmental impact statement the agency is developing and as the preferred alternative in Mar...
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Congress uses little-known law to roll back Biden-era BLM public lands lockup
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, National

Congress uses little-known law to roll back Biden-era BLM public lands lockup

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com Last week, the Senate passed three Congressional Review Act resolutions overturning BLM resource management plans. What would have been called an earth-shattering precedent not so long ago was this time hardly noticed except by those who closely follow Interior and energy issues. The Biden-era resource management plans were designed to lock up millions of acres of public lands from the “multiple uses” required by law. The Congressional Review Act (CRA) was part of a small business package signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. It provided a tool Congress sometimes uses to overturn federal regulatory agency actions. It requires agencies to report any new rules to Congress and provides special procedures under which Congress can...
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Bill Gates Admits Climate Change Not the End of the World After All
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The Western Journal, Approved, National

Bill Gates Admits Climate Change Not the End of the World After All

By Bryan Chai | The Western Journal If you’ve paid any attention to the discourse surrounding the weather in the last 30 years, you’ve no doubt heard from some climate change alarmists. From Greta Thunberg to Bill Gates, “climate change” was the looming, apocalyptic Sword of Damocles threatening to end life as we know it. As time wore on, however, fewer and fewer people were inclined to believe that these doomsday predictions (whose dates kept getting moved back) were actually rooted in science. In fact, Thunberg has all but abandoned her original pet cause to move on to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But Gates? He’s still talking about climate change — but the tune he’s singing may surprise you. (Of note, keep in mind that Gates was and is a proponent of syntheti...
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Colorado Democrats Push DOE to Restore $600M in Cancelled Energy Grants
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Just The News, Approved, State

Colorado Democrats Push DOE to Restore $600M in Cancelled Energy Grants

By: Elyse Apel | Just The News Colorado Democrats, including U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, joined together to sign a letter calling for the U.S. Department of Energy to restore over $600 million in funding for 38 Colorado-affiliated energy projects. Colorado Democrats joined together to sign a letter calling for the U.S. Department of Energy to restore over $600 million in funding for 38 Colorado-affiliated energy projects. In the letter, Colorado's U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, and Colorado U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse, Diana DeGette, Jason Crow and Brittany Pettersen argue the cuts are harmful to the state. “By cancelling over $600 million in energy-sector funding, much of which directly supported grid reliability, DOE is making it more di...
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