Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee today called for a subpoena of White House records regarding the half-billion dollar taxpayer loan guarantee of Solyndra, a move Rep. Diana DeGette, the ranking Democrat on the panel, blasted as “an act of irresponsible partisanship.”
Xcel Energy shines nationally when it comes to providing solar energy to its customers, according to a recent survey, but locally representatives of Colorado’s solar industry say the state’s largest utility has done much to undermine their energy sector since the beginning of the year.
Sen. Mark Udall today introduced a bill that would allow the Department of Energy to insure the value of solar panels and other renewable energy systems leased by homeowners. Udall says the Renewable Energy Access through Leasing (REAL) Act would be paid for by charging premiums for companies to participate in the insurance program and would come with zero cost to taxpayers.
Two days after a conservative group filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver challenging Colorado’s renewable energy standard (RES), Colorado Sen. Mark Udall – who was instrumental in getting voter approval for that RES back in 2004 – introduced a bill with his cousin Tom Udall, D-N.M., to establish a national standard.
Hedge fund billionaire Louis Bacon, who has been battling Xcel Energy in its bid to run new transmission lines across his massive Trinchera Ranch in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, apparently wins even if he loses. The Denver Post Friday reported Bacon’s hedge fund, Moore Capital Management, owns nearly $56 million in Xcel stock and stands to profit from the power lines that will connect the sun-soaked San Luis Valley and its many solar power facilities to Colorado’s Front Range cities.
The problem with massive, utility-scale solar and wind power plants, according to both critics and proponents, is the best places for collecting rays and electricity-generating gusts are often far from Colorado’s major population centers.
The San Luis Valley, for…
Despite the Gulf oil spill, a massive pipeline break in Michigan and broad concerns about global warming, ambitious climate-change and energy legislation is likely dead for the year. That poses a conundrum, going forward, for environmentalists: How to convince lawmakers of the need for legislation to sever the country’s decades-long ties to oil and to reform energy policy more generally?
Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest electric utility with 1.3 million customers, released its annual Corporate Responsibility Report for 2009 on Thursday, touting several green energy projects in Colorado among its accomplishments in the company’s eight-state territory.
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…
Gov. Bill Ritter Tuesday praised Xcel Energy for pulling back its plan to charge homes and small businesses with solar arrays a surcharge to help the company defray the costs of building new transmission lines.
As Xcel continues to be…
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