Colorado 2021 Legislative Summary, Abandoned Wells, City of Boulder - Xcel Energy Partnership, and More! |
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Legislative Summary
The 2021 Colorado legislative session is complete! By our count, there were 57 climate-related bills that we tracked this session. Most passed, including a couple of our favorites, the Community Choice Energy bill, HB21-1269, and Renewable Energy Generation, SB21-261.
A significant development in the last month was that, under threat of veto, most of the big emissions reduction bill, SB21-200, was added to HB21-1266 - which, according to sponsor Senator Faith Winter, retained 13 of the 16 items. Even though it’s not as strong as the original bill, it’s still a significant win for climate advocacy!
Jan Rose of the Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate gave an entertaining and informative summary, which can be viewed HERE. Two overarching takeaways:
- Governor Polis blocked nearly all hard emissions limits
- The social cost of pollution was a significant factor this year.
Scorecard for bills that CEA took a position on:
Supported and Passed or Opposed and Failed: 15 13/16
Supported and Failed or Opposed and Passed: 3
To see the full list of climate-related bills and how they fared, click HERE.
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Suncor Update
Suncor and environmental racism get national attention. Read more HERE.
Chemicals in water near Suncor raise alarms. See the Denver Post for more information HERE.
HB21-1189 Fenceline Monitoring Bill Passes. For details on the enhanced monitoring, view the The Colorado Sun article HERE.
Suncor's $12 million upgrades to fix pollution called "Band-Aids." More on Suncor's proposed changes HERE.
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Xcel's Brush (Pawnee) Coal Plant Emitting Sulfur Dioxide Far Above Safe Levels
A broad coalition of activists says it has done its own pollution modeling and analyzed EPA data, finding the Brush coal-fired station violated standards for hundreds of hours in the past two years. To read more about this unsafe emitter, see The Colorado Sun article HERE.
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We Need To Talk About Methane: Part Two - The Abandoned and Orphaned Well Crisis
There are thousands of abandoned and orphaned wells currently polluting in Colorado, but the cleanup process has been slow and underfunded. Considering the health and environmental threats they pose, the historically slow place at which these wells have been plugged, and the acceleration of bankruptcies in the industry, it’s critical that oil and gas companies are held fully accountable for their role in this issue. For an in depth look into this topic, read the full CEA blog article HERE.
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The Importance of the Social Cost of Carbon
In Xcel's calculations, without factoring in the cost of carbon, closing Pueblo Unit 3 early will be $103 million more expensive than Xcel’s preferred plan. But once the cost of carbon is added, closing Pueblo Unit 3 creates a $267 million savings, the company said in its own filing.
“When you include the social cost of carbon there is no economically rational basis for running coal units,” Matt Gerhart, a Sierra Club attorney, said.
While putting a price tag on the damage caused by fossil fuels is no easy task, it is essential to making important climate decisions. Read more HERE.
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City of Boulder-Xcel Energy Partnership Update
Boulder has selected 18 community members to be part of the inaugural Community Advisory Panel, including CEA Board member Emily Swallow and former CEA Board member Julie Zahniser! They and others on the panel will be working to hold Xcel to its promises and get Boulder to 100% renewable energy as fast as possible. Read more about this partnership HERE.
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PUC Update
In Xcel’s Clean Energy Plan proceeding, the Colorado PUC issued an interim order which approved new parties to the proceeding. The PUC denied participation status of the “Coalition of Ratepayers,” a pro-coal, Wyoming-based company. The PUC expressed an interest in exploring additional topics, including solar-plus-storage modeling, transmission expansion, EV integration, and more.
In Tri-State’s Electric Resource Plan proceeding, the interstate cooperative agreed to model five additional resource scenarios which will examine early coal retirements, the social cost of carbon, low coal utilization, and other approaches to climate change mitigation.
A more complete summary of PUC activities can be found HERE.
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What We Are Listening To
Looking for a new podcast? Join ILSR Senior Researcher Ron Knox for Antimonopoly Happy Hour HERE.
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What We Are Reading
Northern Weld County to be Placed Under Tighter Ozone Restrictions in EPA Reversal
Read more about the tougher restrictions HERE.
Advanced Nuclear Not Always Better
Nuclear power is quickly becoming obsolete with its higher price tag, greater environmental and security risk, and centralized point of failure compared to renewable energy. Supposedly smaller, cheaper, and safer nuclear is being developed, such as a proposal in Wyoming... except it might actually be worse. Take a closer look HERE.
Kentucky Center Retraining Coal Workers for High-Tech Manufacturing
The eKentucky Advanced Manufacturing Institute is a success story for federal efforts to revitalize coal communities, but it also highlights the challenges of seeding a 21st-century local economy. Read more information HERE.
How to Spot the Difference Between a Real Climate Policy and Greenwashing Guff
The impacts of the climate emergency are now so obvious, only the truly deluded still deny them. Instead, we are at the point where everyone agrees something must be done, but many are making only vague, distant promises of ineffective action.
So how to spot this greenwash? A good rule of thumb is whether the proposal actually cuts emissions, by a significant amount, and soon, and whether the proposer is in fact making the climate emergency worse elsewhere. Train your greenwashing eye with more details HERE.
Renewables Require Much Less Mining Than Fossil Fuels
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Thank you for caring about our climate and staying up to date on these vitally important issues!
- The Clean Energy Action Team
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