Tag: Renewable Energy

With one week to go to pass six green-energy bills in the current legislative session, eight Democratic state lawmakers are holding a rally on the west steps of the State Capitol Wednesday at 1 p.m. – a sort of Renewabollapalooza for the New Energy Economy.

The CBS news mag “60 Minutes” aired an interesting primer on the debate over so-called "clean-coal technology" Sunday night, interviewing some of the heavy hitters in the industry and scientists calling for a moratorium on all new coal-fired power plants.

Incumbents made it a clean sweep Thursday in the prickly battle for seats on the board of the Intermountain Rural Electric Association, the state’s largest rural electric co-op with nearly 138,000 members.

Another day, another blow to conservation-minded energy consumers in the suburbs between Denver and Colorado Springs.

Some early returns are in for the Intermountain Rural Electric Association (IREA) board election, and it’s not good news for renewable-energy advocates trying to bust up what they say is a cabal of coal-loving incumbents.

Votes are being counted in the closely watched Intermountain Rural Electric Association (IREA) board election after a lightly attended annual meeting in Woodland Park over the weekend, but results reportedly won’t be available till the end of the week.

Former Republican state Sen. Williams Schroeder says a current bill aimed at increasing the energy efficiency of the state’s largest rural electric association is a form of punishment for the co-op's past resistance to efficiency mandates. While the head of Colorado's most progressive co-op agrees that legislation isn't the way to make IREA go green.

A tiered system of electrical rates that increase as residential consumers increase their use, especially during peak consumption periods, has ignited a power play between Colorado's electric co-ops. According to one rural co-op CEO, who helped draft a bill that makes such rates possible, the industry's future is moving greater use of renewable sources and energy conservation. Another co-op chief, heavily tied to coal-fired power, argues a voluntary alternative-energy system will sock residents in the pocketbook when they can least afford it.

If you’re one of the nearly 137,000 members of the Intermountain Rural Electric Association (IREA), a sprawling co-op providing power in 10 counties between Denver and Colorado Springs, you may have noticed a little something extra with your bill this month. Or you may not have.

A coup attempt by radical greenies or a long-overdue transition to a more environmentally balanced, 21st-century energy policy? Depending on who you talk to, that’s the way the debate is being framed as Colorado’s largest rural electric co-op, the Intermountain Rural Electric Association (IREA), faces one of the most critical — and contentious — board elections in recent memory.