Opinion: Our energy future
The Clean Air Clean Jobs Act (CACJA), passed by the Colorado Legislature in 2010, could end up committing us to a future tied to coal. This may seem counter-intuitive, since CACJA will lead to early retirement of some Metro-area coal fired power plants, and their replacement with cleaner gas fired plants. Here`s the problem: CACJA ended up requiring us to pay Xcel the remaining balance due on the Metro-area coal plants, even though they will be retired before their useful lifetimes end. This is not a huge financial burden, as the early retirement is only a few years on average. But, in the process of implementing CACJA, the Public Utilities Commission approved Xcel Energy`s request to invest about $380 million to upgrade nearly 750 MW of non-Metro-area coal plants, and these plants have lifetimes extending out to 2041 for the biggest one. If these plants are then shut down relatively soon because we want less CO2 emissions, we`ll have to pay twice – once for coal upgrade and once f...