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Tag: Energy Policy

Coastal desalination could save Colorado’s water. The pushback? Cost
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Coastal desalination could save Colorado’s water. The pushback? Cost

By Michael J Badagliacco, “MJB” | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s water rights must never become a bargaining chip.  The 1922 Colorado River Compact apportioned 7.5 million acre-feet annually to the Upper Basin, including Colorado, and the same amount to the Lower Basin states. The 1928 Boulder Canyon Project Act fixed specific Lower Basin shares: California 4.4 million acre-feet, Arizona 2.8 million acre-feet, and Nevada 0.3 million acre-feet. The 1948 Upper Colorado River Basin Compact later assigned Colorado roughly 51.75% of the Upper Basin’s share, or about 3.86 million acre-feet. The 1964 Arizona v. California Supreme Court decree confirmed federal oversight of these mainstream allocations while highlighting the need for supply solutions beyond repeate...
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Colorado Lawmakers Close 2026 Session With Greater Government Control And Higher Fiscal Risk
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Close 2026 Session With Greater Government Control And Higher Fiscal Risk

By Jake Fogleman | Complete Colorado The Colorado legislature officially adjourned May 13, after weighing more than 600 bills over the course of 120 days. Lawmakers entered the 2026 legislative session facing a set of familiar problems: another billion-dollar budget deficit, rising voter frustration over affordability, and growing concerns about Colorado’s economic competitiveness and business climate. Yet despite those warning signs, the Democrat-dominated legislature largely doubled down on the same governing philosophy that has increasingly defined the Capitol in recent years—more fees, more special interest tax benefits at the expense of other taxpayers, and more attempts to carve revenue streams out from under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). To be sure, not...
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Supreme Court Asked To Halt Boulder’s Taxpayer Funded Climate Lawfare
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Local

Supreme Court Asked To Halt Boulder’s Taxpayer Funded Climate Lawfare

By Kyle Kohli | Complete Colorado In a brief filed Thursday with the U.S. Supreme Court, defendants argued the high court should end Boulder’s climate lawsuit once and for all to avoid a “chaos” of a patchwork of state court rulings governing energy policy. In February, after eight years of Boulder pursuing its taxpayer-funded climate lawsuit against Exxon and Suncor, SCOTUS agreed to review the energy companies’ petition on whether state and local governments can use tort law to regulate global greenhouse gas emissions. The Court will hear oral arguments in the case during its fall term this year. SCOTUS has the opportunity to deliver a major blow to the national climate litigation campaign and its attempt push public policy through the c...
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Colorado Lawmakers Renew Public Utilities Commission Authority But Sidestep Reform Debate
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Renew Public Utilities Commission Authority But Sidestep Reform Debate

By Mark Jaffe | The Colorado Sun Xcel, Black Hills, some businesses backed failed attempts to amend the bill to grow the commission to 5 members in the interest of “ideological diversity.” Facing rising utility bills, clean energy mandates and new demands for power, especially from data centers, a chorus of utilities and business groups is united saying the Colorado Public Utilities Commission needs an overhaul. In part, the push appears to be prompted by some controversial commission decisions. On Saturday, Republican lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill dealing with the routine reauthorization of the commission to expand the three-person panel to five members. “We’re simply not getting a good representation on the PUC with three people,” said Rep...
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GOP Opposition Halts Last-Minute Bill Challenging Natural Gas Amendment
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

GOP Opposition Halts Last-Minute Bill Challenging Natural Gas Amendment

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics Colorado lawmakers pulled back plans to counter a proposed constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right of consumers to use natural gas. The bill’s backers said the legislation would not have significantly affected the initiative’s impact, even as debate intensifies among environmental groups, the oil and gas industry and policymakers. The bill — initially planned by House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D‑Dillon, Majority Leader Jennifer Bacon, D‑Denver, and Sen. Lisa Cutter, D‑Evergreen — would have addressed how the ballot measure might affect the state’s air quality. Bacon said the initiative’s wording is overly broad and could create unintended consequences. The proposed constitutional amendment, introduced b...
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Colorado Democrats Drop Effort To Limit Natural Gas Ballot Proposal
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado Democrats Drop Effort To Limit Natural Gas Ballot Proposal

By Taylor Dolven | The Colorado Sun The initiative would give Coloradans a “right to natural gas” in the state constitution. State Democratic lawmakers abandoned their effort to blunt the potential impact of a proposed ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to give Coloradans a “right to natural gas.” Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, Assistant Majority Leader Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, and Sen. Lisa Cutter, D-Littleton, had pledged Friday to introduce a bill that would ensure the amendment doesn’t threaten public safety or local air quality. They would have had to introduce the bill on Monday in order to have enough time to get it passed by the end of the legislative session on Wednesday. Republican House members asked t...
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Colorado Lawmakers Move To Extend Coal Plant Operations As Energy Prices Rise
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E&E News, State

Colorado Lawmakers Move To Extend Coal Plant Operations As Energy Prices Rise

By Jason Plautz | E&E News A plan to postpone the retirement of the Ray Nixon Power Plant comes as Colorado wrestles with its climate targets. CLIMATEWIRE | Colorado lawmakers are poised to extend the life of a coal plant three years beyond a state-mandated retirement deadline — a backtrack that underscores Colorado's growing tension between climate goals and energy affordability. Under state law, Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) was required to shutter the Ray Nixon Power Plant by the end of 2029, part of the state’s effort to fully move away from coal power by 2031 and run a 100 percent renewable energy grid by 2040. But the process of replacing the plant with renewable sources has proven more expensive and time-consuming than anticipated, and CSU h...
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Colorado’s War On Natural Gas Could Cost Coloradans Dearly
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s War On Natural Gas Could Cost Coloradans Dearly

By Elizabeth Caven | Commentary, The Denver Gazette In a state where winter isn’t optional, you’d think reliable heat wouldn’t be either. Yet, Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission seems increasingly comfortable with discarding the very energy source that keeps the majority of households in the state warm: natural gas. Residents are not thinking about long-term regulatory frameworks when they go to turn up the heat in January. They are asking much simpler questions: Will their homes stay warm, and can they afford it? This is what makes Colorados current energy trajectory so puzzling and, increasingly, troubling. Natural gas continues to be the backbone of the states energy sphere even as lawmakers at the Capitol seem determined to ignore that fact. A recent report published ...
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Gas Turbines Ramp Up As Colorado Joins Regional Grid System
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The Coloradoan, Approved, State

Gas Turbines Ramp Up As Colorado Joins Regional Grid System

By Rebecca Powell | The Coloradoan In the month since Platte River Power Authority joined a regional energy market, its combustion gas turbines have been operating at a higher level and the Craig 1 unit that was supposed to have been retired instead began burning coal again. The combustion turbines have been operating at a "much higher capacity factor" and prices have been volatile, Melie Vincent, PRPA's chief power supply officer, told the board of directors on April 30. "A lot of this is just SPP operators trying to figure out the western side," Vincent said, referring to the Southwest Power Pool regional transmission organization's expansion into the western United States with nine utilities in Colorado, Arizona, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah and Wyo...
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Nuclear Energy Proposal Divides Colorado Democrats And Environmental Groups
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Nuclear Energy Proposal Divides Colorado Democrats And Environmental Groups

By Michael Booth | The Colorado Sun Colorado bill would set a nuclear permitting czar, help utilities find a location, and allow them to charge customers for $20 million in studies. A major effort to smooth the way for a return to nuclear-generated power in Colorado gets a first hearing Thursday in a legislative committee, as boosters of the out-of-favor technology claim growing energy demands and better design prove the time is right for a revival.  The state’s longstanding coalition of nonprofit groups that advocate for environmental and economic justice, meanwhile, vow a united front against the nuclear-friendly effort, and say some of their allies have betrayed the clean energy cause in favor of risky economic development.  House Bill 1337, up for deb...
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