Coal-fired Power Plant

If it seems like it was just a few months ago when Xcel Energy was asking for a nearly $160 million rate increase – and drawing polite protests like the one pictured here in downtown Denver – that’s because it was. Now the state’s largest utility is back, asking the PUC for another rate hike [...]

Xcel Energy’s rate-case hearing before the Colorado Public Utilities Commission runs through the end of the week, with some wags saying the state’s largest utility intentionally asks for too much ($177.4 million) so the PUC can lop off $30 million or $40 million and rubberstamp the rate hike.

The company proposing an underground coal mine west of Grand Junction in Mesa and Garfield counties has pulled its permit application with the Colorado Division of Reclamation Mining and Safety because of new requirements by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
According to a BLM spokeswoman, CAM-Colorado LLC pulled its state permit application for the Red [...]

At least one Colorado rural electric co-ops is leaning greener this week after a pro-renewable candidate, former Telluride Mountain Village Mayor Rube Felicelli, beat out incumbent Tony Forrest for a board seat on the San Miguel Power Association.

Holy Cross Energy, viewed by many as one of the most progressive rural electric co-ops in the state, isn’t nearly forward-thinking enough for some renewable-energy advocates looking to oust longtime president of the board Tom Turnbull, a Carbondale-area rancher.

In a little-publicized board election to be determined June 5, Turnbull is being targeted by Glenwood Springs businessman and Carbondale resident Marshall Foote, who has the endorsement of the most environmentally aggressive ski company in the state, Aspen SkiCo.

The only things missing from the ozone-busting tag team of Gov. Bill Ritter and Attorney General John Suthers are Mexican wrestling masks to completely shield their partisan identities.

The state’s chief executive and chief lawyer have teamed up to fight the belching coal-fired Four Corners Power Plant and the planned Desert Rock plant located just over the state’s southwestern border with New Mexico.