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Tag: Energy Regulation

Federal EPA Regulators Flag Colorado Air Permits For Weak Gas Monitoring
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Federal EPA Regulators Flag Colorado Air Permits For Weak Gas Monitoring

By Michael Booth | The Colorado Sun State needs to ensure Western Slope companies are monitoring harmful gas releases, order says. The Environmental Protection Agency has slapped back six oil and gas air pollution permits to Colorado regulators, saying the state failed to require adequate monitoring of natural gas venting in the Garfield County systems and risked letting too much dirty air into the atmosphere.  The environmental watchdogs who objected to two oil and gas companies’ permits called the rare Trump Administration rejection a victory in their ongoing campaign to force Colorado into more monitoring of gas leaks, intentional venting and flaring. Repeated failures in any of those steps of natural gas gathering release harmful volatile organic compounds a...
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Two visions of Colorado’s energy future collide in committee hearing
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Two visions of Colorado’s energy future collide in committee hearing

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Xcel shut off power Saturday afternoon in parts of Boulder and Jefferson counties—roughly 18,000 customers in all. The wind was up, fire danger was high, and outages weren’t limited to the shutoff areas—some hit in the foothills, others farther into the mountains, where crews were still working Sunday. House Bill 26-1246 had come up earlier in the week during a committee hearing. Rep. Ken DeGraaf pointed to those kinds of events as a warning. “Public safety power shutoffs… have become increasingly normalized,” he told lawmakers. What followed wasn’t just a debate over one bill. It was a clash between two different ways of thinking about how Colorado should power its future. At its core, the disagreement comes down to this: should...
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How climate policy became the steering wheel of Colorado government
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ScottKJames.com, Approved, Commentary, State

How climate policy became the steering wheel of Colorado government

By Scott James | Commentary, Scott K. James In part 1 of my five-part series, I reveal how climate mandates quietly reshaped Colorado’s laws, roads, and local control – without a vote from the people. Yesterday, I told you the truth about where I am – not as an elected official, not as a partisan, not as a policy wonk, but as a human being who loves this state enough to lose sleep over it. If you missed it, you can read that emotional prologue here. That was the heart.Today begins the head. Today marks the first installment of the five-part series I promised – not ranting, not rumor, not political theater, but the receipts. The real sequence of events, the policies, the bills, the rules, the decisions, and the machinery that fundamentally reshap...
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What Xcel promised regulators and what customers were told before Dec. 17 shutoff warnings
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

What Xcel promised regulators and what customers were told before Dec. 17 shutoff warnings

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Coloradans are being asked to prepare for the chance of a planned outage on Dec. 17. The company’s public alerts tell people to watch the map. The filings tell a fuller story about thresholds, timelines and who is supposed to be in the loop when a shutoff is on the table. That framework was not created overnight. It was built through years of filings with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and formally approved in 2025. As of Dec. 16, the documents already on record allow for a clearer picture of what Xcel committed to regulators and what customers were actually told as the wind event approached. Dec. 17 was not an improvisation Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) are not ad hoc emergency decisions. They are a s...
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A fee by any other name? Colorado’s climate charge faces a constitutional reckoning
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

A fee by any other name? Colorado’s climate charge faces a constitutional reckoning

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s climate fee law, SB24-230, is now at the center of a constitutional fight, but the lawmakers and advocacy groups that once championed its goals have offered no explanation as the legal questions mount. SB24-230 took effect in July and is expected to pull in more than $175 million next year from oil and gas producers. Lawmakers insist those charges are "remediation fees," meant to cover environmental damage they say comes from drilling. Advance Colorado views the structure differently. Executive Vice President Kristi Burton Brown stated, “That’s not the standard. A real ‘fee’ has to fund a service being received by the person paying. ‘Fees’ are not designed to be penalties for industries the state doesn’t favor, and no ...
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Space Command exit shows economic cost of political games in Colorado
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Captain K's Corner, Approved, Commentary, State, Substack

Space Command exit shows economic cost of political games in Colorado

By Capt. Seth Keshel | Commentary, Captain K’s Corner, Substack $1 billion in economic value is moving to Northern Alabama, and there is plenty more monetary damage to dish out if Colorado wants to keep political prisoners behind bars. Economic impacts can slice like double-edged swords. Everyone who voted for President Trump last year did so knowing tariffs could cause short-term pain to some of his own voters while simultaneously strengthening an America-first economic outlook. Likewise, one state getting richer in an industry’s move across state lines means another state is getting poorer, impacting not only employees, but those engaging in peripheral business or adjacent industries. We’ve seen this over and over in the culture war with gun and ammo dealers relocating from blue to...
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The man Polis vowed to destroy: Kevin Kauffman’s final fight for truth and legacy
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, State, Top Stories

The man Polis vowed to destroy: Kevin Kauffman’s final fight for truth and legacy

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice They tried to bury him. He’s still standing—with the paperwork to prove it. On his 50th birthday, Kevin Kauffman stood waist-deep in the waters off Eilat, Israel. His son handed him a sealed envelope his accountant asked him to deliver on this day. He opened it, read what was inside and stood in silence. It wasn’t just a numerical milestone in that envelope—it carried the weight of a life built by a self-made man. Kauffman had earned every cent the hard way, guided by mentors, not inheritance.  What he saw didn’t make him feel powerful. It made him reflect. “The achievement led me to a deeply felt realization—I had a responsibility to my family and my community,” Kauffman said. “So I started thinking about how to give some of it ba...
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Bled dry by the state: One oil company’s fight to survive ECMC’s war of attrition
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, State, Top Stories

Bled dry by the state: One oil company’s fight to survive ECMC’s war of attrition

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice An oil company’s $7M cleanup plan became the state’s excuse to shut it down. Jeffrey Kauffman stood at the edge of an excavation site—not to check production, but to explain why there wasn’t any. There was no rig, no flaring, no signs of oil moving to market. Just a fenced-off hole in the earth—and a state agency that wouldn’t let them fill it back in. “This one’s cost between $200,000 and $300,000,” said Kauffman, who serves as KPK’s Chief Operating Officer. “We submitted clean soil results months ago. Still no approval to close it.” The site is one of roughly a dozen that KPK has excavated under orders from the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC). Some holes have remained open since early 2024. This one, the s...
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The Rule 211 gamble: How two towns used Colorado law to effectively shut down an oil company’s core assets
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, State, Top Stories

The Rule 211 gamble: How two towns used Colorado law to effectively shut down an oil company’s core assets

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Buried wells, sworn affidavits and a state determined to make an example. This is the opening chapter of a three-part series on one oil and gas company’s final stand—and what the documents and data actually reveal. Start with the towns. Stay for the verdict. Start with the towns. Stay for the verdict. In September 2024, the cities of Dacono and Frederick uploaded a PDF to the Energy and Carbon Management Commission’s (ECMC) filing system. It was short, simple—and explosive. The two municipalities weren’t asking for a cleanup, a fine or a negotiated fix. They were asking the state to order the permanent plugging and abandonment of 45 wells operated by K.P. Kauffman Company (KPK). Their argument relied on Rule 211, a provision historically u...
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