Ritter renewable hike sails through Senate; clean air bill next on agenda

Gov. Bill Ritter may be a lame-duck chief executive laid up by a recent bike crash, but his clean-energy agenda keeps rolling along like Lance Armstrong in the Alps.

As state Senate mulls renewable energy bill, report shows jobs potential

A report released ahead of state Senate debate on a bill that would up Colorado’s renewable energy standard (RES) to 30 percent by 2020 finds that HB 1001 would generate 23,450 new jobs over the next decade.

Activists look to transform Colorado power grid one co-op election at a time

Conservationists appear to be taking a more subtle approach to reforming the fossil-fuel-fixated ways of Colorado’s rural electric associations (REAs) this legislative session, introducing a bill that would daylight the co-op’s board of director elections, but not offering much more in terms of transformative legislation.

Xcel officials: 30 percent renewable energy target by 2020 ‘not impossible’

Officials for Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest utility, said Wednesday the Minnesota-based company is willing to consider upping the state’s renewable energy standard (RES) to 30 percent by the year 2020, a proposal highlighted by Gov. Ritter in a speech marking the beginning of the legislative session this week and at the center of the first House bill introduced yesterday as the session got underway.

Colo. Democratic leaders say jobs top priority for coming legislative session

DENVER– Gov. Bill Ritter, Senate President Brandon Shaffer and House Speaker Terrance Carroll told a crowd of mostly media gathered on the west steps of the Capitol this afternoon that the majority-party legislative agenda this session would focus on creating and maintaining jobs in the state and balancing the budget. The three men also underlined the value they placed on a bipartisan approach to achieving their priorities. A scheduled conference called by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper who would be announcing his candidacy for governor just hours later, however, hung over the event and suggested how difficult true bipartisanship might be to effect this election year.

Ritter wants to see renewable energy standard upped to 30 percent by 2020

Announcing his agenda for the legislative session that gets under way Wednesday, Gov. Bill Ritter Tuesday revealed a plan to increase Colorado’s renewable energy standard (RES) by another 10 percent by 2020.

In a press release Tuesday, Ritter set this…

Ritter says Xcel exceeded solar expectations with new renewable plan

Xcel Energy Tuesday released an ambitious plan to achieve the state-mandated Colorado Renewable Energy Standard (RES) of 20 percent of the utility’s energy base load from renewable sources by 2020.

The 10-year plan, according to a release from Xcel, will…

Nuclear boom leads to uranium claims near proposed wilderness area

A spike in uranium prices in recent years has sparked a mining-claim rush near a proposed Colorado wilderness area – a situation that would be exacerbated by a federal energy bill that may include nuclear power in a national renewable energy standard.