Tag: Western Resource Advocates

DENVER-- Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson spoke Monday at the National Jewish Respiratory Hospital here as a member of a panel discussing the environment and the economy. Jackson lauded "new energy economy" legislation advanced in Colorado during the administration of Democratic Governor Bill Ritter for the way it managed to bridge a major contemporary political divide in order to protect the environment and boost the economy.

Members of the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) today voted to spend an initial $72,000 to form a task force to study the feasibility of two separate proposals to pipe water out of the Green River in southwest Wyoming to Colorado’s Front Range.

The state’s second largest power provider – Tri-State Generation and Transmission – has an all-of-the-above approach to energy resources, but that doesn’t mean its interest in a coal plant expansion in Kansas is meant to transform the Westminster-based company into a larger regional power wholesaler.

Conservation groups deeply involved in the resource acquisition planning process for Westminster-based Tri-State Generation and Transmission say they’re very concerned the state’s second largest power supplier behind only Xcel Energy is planning to build an 895-megawatt conventional, coal-fired power plant just across the state line in Holcomb, Kan.

Proposals by state and industry officials in Colorado to step up transparency about the impact of hydrofracking operations on water are welcomed, but they still fall short, says Western Resource Advocates.

An extraordinary set of circumstances produced the Colorado River Compact of 1922. The question now is whether the compact and other laws and treaties collectively called the Law of the River are sufficiently resilient to prevent teeth-barring among the seven states of the basin in circumstances that during the 21st century may be even more extraordinary.

Colorado Independent energy and environmental reporter David O. Williams will appear tonight on the Rocky Mountain PBS show “Colorado State of Mind” on a panel that includes former Gov. Bill Ritter, Public Service Company of Colorado (Xcel Energy) president and CEO David Eves and Western Resource Advocates executive director Karin Sheldon.

Under a new agreement awaiting approval by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), solar purchasers would see upfront rebates for the purchase of solar units reduced or eliminated.

In the wake of a recent report showing Colorado will face severe water shortages by 2050, a Boulder-based conservation group has released a study comparing the water consumption of conventional coal-fired power plants to cleaner burning forms of fuel. Western Resource Advocates’ (WRA) new report, “Every Drop Counts: Valuing the Water Used to Generate Electricity,” found that in Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, power plants consume an estimated 395,000 acre feet of water a year.

Xcel Energy, the state’s largest electric power utility, today filed a plan with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission that will ensure the Minneapolis-based company complies with the new Clean Air Clean Jobs Act aimed at drastically reducing coal-fired power plant emissions.