Clear Skies Ahead For Colorado Clean Energy

Colorado’s commitment to clean energy may soon be second only to California’s. Late on Friday, the Colorado Senate passed a bill that would increase the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to 30 percent by 2020–California’s RPS is a neck ahead at 33 percent. Governor Bill Ritter is expected to sign the bill if/when the House passes it through with some small changes. This would boost Colorado solar tremendously.

But Ritter’s push for a clean energy economy doesn’t end there. Shortly after the bill passed the Senate, the Governor announced the Colorado Clean Air-Clean Jobs Act, which had already been cleared with the large investor-owned utility Xcel Energy. This act is primarily a move away from outdated coal-fired power plants. Accordingly, it represents a major windfall for natural gas, and hopefully for solar energy and other renewable energy technologies as well. As the Denver Business Journal reports:

The legislation, if passed, would require Xcel to cut pollutants greatly by retiring, retrofitting or repowering Front Range coal-fired power plants by the end of 2017 and replacing them with facilities fueled by natural gas and other lower- or non-emitting energy sources.

In a positively gleeful press release, President & CEO Regina Hopper of America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) called the legislation “an historic decision” and expressed the hope that the rest of the nation will follow Ritter’s lead. Certainly, cleaning up old coal plants and/or moving to cleaner technologies altogether is a clear path to clear skies.

Critics are saying that Ritter’s new legislation will cost the state jobs, and consumers more money with higher energy prices. However, senators behind the bill stand by their assertions that new long-term renewable energy jobs and a greater reliance on dependable domestic energy sources will negate these concerns. The debate is evenly split between the backing Democrats and opposing Republicans: the vote passed in the Senate purely along party lines.

Between the Clean-Air Act and a new, stringent RPS, Ritter is demonstrating to the rest of the country that Colorado is serious about a clean energy economy. Colorado solar rebates are managed by utilities, so putting pressure on them to obtain a greater percentage of their available energy from renewable sources will ensure strong solar incentives for years to come.