Good stuff. I think you ought to forward this column to a few people ... including
* Governor Polis
* legislative leaders in both chambers
* the PUC
* whoever you might know involved with news at The Colorado Sun, CPR, and Denver TV stations. Kyle Clark? I'm betting Tony Kovaleski and Jaclyn Allen at Denver7 would be interested.
This: "Who knows, maybe the PUC is leaving decisions to Xcel, TriState, & Black Hills and they’ll just respond yes/no to the requests from the utilities."
...is basically what happens. The PUC has ~100 employees. Xcel has roughly 10x that number associated with rates, regulatory affairs, legislative, etc. The PUC is a guardrail on the utilities plans, not a guide.
Just as an aside, the whole thing is a shell game. The Governor makes the decisions and tells the PUC members. The PUCs tell the utilities what to do. The utilities take the blame. The utilities, literally, can't spend a dime, or raise your rates, without approval of the PUC, who acts under the governor's authority.
So, whatever happens, blame your governor. He's lying when he points at the PUC, who is lying when they point to the utilities.
David, you are fresh air in the Colorado climate scene.
I bickered with you a bit over some technicalities, but support what you are doing and would like to help in any way I can.
For the last two years, I've been involved in a low-level position as a co-chair in Citizen Climate Lobby’s legislative team.
CCL is a reasonably large (200,000 national 6,000 CO), grassroots lobbying NGO encouraging a carbon fee and dividend solution to reduce CO2 emissions. We are on paper non-partisan, but in reality the membership is 90%+ progressive. I am a token conservative and spend most of my time promoting energy policy reality.
My official CCL lobbying has been laimo, since the organization takes months to approve state lobby efforts.
My unofficial schmoozing effort has been successful, however. I've been active in Pro15, the NE CO rural advocacy group. I've attended both NE CO JOLT conferences and am their photographer, had lunch with Big Pivots editor Alan Best at the last PIESAC conference in Pueblo, and attended a couple of Green techno-liberal ClimateCon conferences. I've spoke at length with a couple dozen legislators, lobbied Ken Buck in DC, am the liaison for Rep Boebert, helped lobby door to door with Senator Liston, testified in person for last years nuclear bill, interrogated the CORE energy purchasing agent for an hour, and met for a half hour with CETA director Maury Galbreith.
As noted by New Thinks, Colorado energy policy is dictated by Govenor Pollis. His energy appointments are progressive Californians and elite Coloradans who have almost zero experience in the energy space outside solar power.
The official electric energy plan by the Energy Office is a joke. I did a critique for my state CCL organization and was told to go talk to WRA and the Rocky Mountain Institute.
I was an unaffiliated observer for the CETA transmission planning process last year, which XCEL boycotted. The problem with the CETA transmission plan, besides the fact that it only covers half the meters in the state, is that it depends on the Energy Office’s assinine 98.5% wind and solar generation plan.
Our state needs more people like us, energy realists, to save us from the progressive greens, who will destroy our energy system and drive electric prices sky high.
And, not sure about Colorado, but the chair of the PUC is usually appointed by the Gov in most states. And (typically) does what the gov tells him to do.
Think of the PUC as a cut out for the governor, and you'll have a better idea what is going on.
Good stuff. I think you ought to forward this column to a few people ... including
* Governor Polis
* legislative leaders in both chambers
* the PUC
* whoever you might know involved with news at The Colorado Sun, CPR, and Denver TV stations. Kyle Clark? I'm betting Tony Kovaleski and Jaclyn Allen at Denver7 would be interested.
I've reached out to the news media. So far no interest. They seem to trust the CEO and PUC conclusions.
This: "Who knows, maybe the PUC is leaving decisions to Xcel, TriState, & Black Hills and they’ll just respond yes/no to the requests from the utilities."
...is basically what happens. The PUC has ~100 employees. Xcel has roughly 10x that number associated with rates, regulatory affairs, legislative, etc. The PUC is a guardrail on the utilities plans, not a guide.
Just as an aside, the whole thing is a shell game. The Governor makes the decisions and tells the PUC members. The PUCs tell the utilities what to do. The utilities take the blame. The utilities, literally, can't spend a dime, or raise your rates, without approval of the PUC, who acts under the governor's authority.
So, whatever happens, blame your governor. He's lying when he points at the PUC, who is lying when they point to the utilities.
David, you are fresh air in the Colorado climate scene.
I bickered with you a bit over some technicalities, but support what you are doing and would like to help in any way I can.
For the last two years, I've been involved in a low-level position as a co-chair in Citizen Climate Lobby’s legislative team.
CCL is a reasonably large (200,000 national 6,000 CO), grassroots lobbying NGO encouraging a carbon fee and dividend solution to reduce CO2 emissions. We are on paper non-partisan, but in reality the membership is 90%+ progressive. I am a token conservative and spend most of my time promoting energy policy reality.
My official CCL lobbying has been laimo, since the organization takes months to approve state lobby efforts.
My unofficial schmoozing effort has been successful, however. I've been active in Pro15, the NE CO rural advocacy group. I've attended both NE CO JOLT conferences and am their photographer, had lunch with Big Pivots editor Alan Best at the last PIESAC conference in Pueblo, and attended a couple of Green techno-liberal ClimateCon conferences. I've spoke at length with a couple dozen legislators, lobbied Ken Buck in DC, am the liaison for Rep Boebert, helped lobby door to door with Senator Liston, testified in person for last years nuclear bill, interrogated the CORE energy purchasing agent for an hour, and met for a half hour with CETA director Maury Galbreith.
As noted by New Thinks, Colorado energy policy is dictated by Govenor Pollis. His energy appointments are progressive Californians and elite Coloradans who have almost zero experience in the energy space outside solar power.
The official electric energy plan by the Energy Office is a joke. I did a critique for my state CCL organization and was told to go talk to WRA and the Rocky Mountain Institute.
I was an unaffiliated observer for the CETA transmission planning process last year, which XCEL boycotted. The problem with the CETA transmission plan, besides the fact that it only covers half the meters in the state, is that it depends on the Energy Office’s assinine 98.5% wind and solar generation plan.
Our state needs more people like us, energy realists, to save us from the progressive greens, who will destroy our energy system and drive electric prices sky high.
first paragraph says "So let’s look at 2004 and see what we find…"
seems like you are actually reading the 2024 calendar ...
Oops - fixed
And, not sure about Colorado, but the chair of the PUC is usually appointed by the Gov in most states. And (typically) does what the gov tells him to do.
Think of the PUC as a cut out for the governor, and you'll have a better idea what is going on.