Electric co-ops legally need to disclose investment risks of coal-fired power

Rural electric co-ops that gamble on low-cost coal while largely keeping their member-owners in the dark about future financial risks may be playing with federal regulatory fire in the form of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, according to an attorney for the renewable-energy sector.

Ron Lehr, attorney for Interwest Energy Alliance and former chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC), said board members of rural electric co-ops need to go to great lengths to divulge to their members the potential risks of investing in coal-fired power plants with a possible federal carbon tax or cap-and-trade policy looming.

Wastewater heat deal struck between Avon, water district

An innovative system designed to use heat generated from wastewater treatment to melt snow and heat several town facilities, including a recreation center pool, is back on track after the mountain town of Avon struck a deal with the local water district last week.

Battlement Mesa residents leery of plan to drill for gas right in town

It’s a valid question: If you retired to Colorado’s sunny Western Slope for the laidback mountain lifestyle but bought into a community purpose-built for workers during the oil shale boom of the 1980s, should you be shocked when drilling rigs sprout like pinon pines in your neighborhood?

Battlement Mesa residents are grappling with that question these days after Denver-based Antero Resources recently struck a deal to drill up to 200 gas wells from 10 pads right in town — some within a few hundred feet of homes and the municipal golf course.

Vilsack issues directive protecting national forest roadless areas

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Thursday issued a memorandum essentially blocking most development and road building on more than 53 million acres of national forest (4.4 million in Colorado) designated as roadless areas.

Green groups challenge industry lawsuit against new drilling regs

After two years of at-times heated debated over new, more environmentally-friendly oil and gas drilling regulations, ratification by the State Legislature and a signature by Gov. Bill Ritter, it looked like the warring parties would finally lay down their arms when the regs went into effect April 1.

Wrong. A few weeks into the new regs, which require closer state scrutiny of drilling practices that might impact air and water quality and wildlife habitat, the Colorado Oil & Gas Association filed a lawsuit against the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which drafted the new rules.

IREA would be exempt from proposed state oversight of electric co-ops

One of the ironies of the controversy over proposed Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) oversight of the state’s second largest utility, Tri-State, is that the rural electric co-op arguably most in need of increased state supervision, the IREA, would be unaffected.

Eighteen of the state’s 22 rural electric co-ops (REAs) would be impacted by PUC approval of Tri-State’s integrated resource plans — annual documents that detail the utility’s energy loads — but the IREA (Intermountain Rural Electric Association) and three other co-ops don’t get their power from Tri-State.

Ex-PUC chairman: Tri-State electric co-op could be headed down coal-fired road to ruin

Ron Lehr was chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in the early 1990s when the Montrose-based Colorado Ute Electric Association went bankrupt because of what he deemed “a colossal blunder that put them out of business.”

NYT story details woes of would-be private ski, golf developer

A year ago this time, Florida real estate developer Bobby Ginn was celebrating a big victory at the polls in the tiny former mining and railroad town of Minturn, Colo., where voters had cleared the path for his proposed Battle Mountain private ski and golf resort.

Ski-country electric co-op prez hit for anti-Ice Age, pro-coal rhetoric

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.

Energy jobs wrangle already shaping 2010 election debate on Western Slope

Most experts agree, the factors shaping the 2010 election on Colorado’s Western Slope – and to a lesser degree the rest of the state – boil down to a version of that old James Carville chestnut: “It’s the energy economy, stupid.”