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Congressman Gabe Evans Calls for Energy Freedom as Colorado Expands Regulations
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The Washington Times, Approved, Commentary, State

Congressman Gabe Evans Calls for Energy Freedom as Colorado Expands Regulations

By U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo. | Commentary, The Washington Times OPINION: Colorado’s Eighth District has an energy advantage most states envy. Weld County, in the northern part of my district, is the fourth-largest energy-producing county in the nation, producing 82% of Colorado’s oil and 56% of its natural gas. We are also home to major wind, solar and emerging technologies. We have the resources and workforce to produce more American energy than ever before. Yet Denver Democrats are determined to squander that advantage. For years, one-party rule at the State Capitol has pursued an energy agenda designed to force Colorado away from oil and natural gas — regardless of what it costs consumers or means for the reliability of our grid. Now, state ...
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Federal Government Commits $250 Million to Colorado Power Grid Project
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Federal Government Commits $250 Million to Colorado Power Grid Project

By Marissa Ventrelli | The Denver Gazette The U.S. Department of Energy is investing $250 million in a transmission connection between Colorado and Texas, which it says will improve grid reliability and meet growing electricity demand. One connection will move from Lamar to the higher-capacity May Valley substation in Brandon. That connects it directly to the Colorado Power Pathway transmission network. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE DENVER GAZETTE
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Xcel’s large load tariff fight: Who will pay for Colorado’s data centers?
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Xcel’s large load tariff fight: Who will pay for Colorado’s data centers?

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice One of the biggest open questions about who pays for Colorado's data center boom is being decided this fall at the Public Utilities Commission, and the answer testimony that frames the fight is already filed. By Aug. 19, intervenors had filed a stack of answer testimony in Proceeding No. 26AL-0137E, Xcel Energy's proposed Large Load Tariff. The case has drawn a crowd. Google is in it. So is Walmart. So is the City and County of Denver, the City of Boulder, the electric cooperative United Power, the state's own energy office, and the commission's trial staff. The evidentiary hearing is set for 5 days across late October, Oct. 21, 22, 26, 27 and 28. A second public comment hearing is set for Oct. 20. The hearing wraps 6...
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Colorado Supreme Court Rejects Xcel Bid to Fast-Track Ranchland Dispute
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado Supreme Court Rejects Xcel Bid to Fast-Track Ranchland Dispute

By Mark Jaffe | The Colorado Sun Xcel tried to condemn a 550-foot strip of Cheyenne County ranchland to connect two wind farms to a substation. The landowner objected to the route. Xcel Energy’s bid to have the state Supreme Court weigh in on a dispute with a Cheyenne County landowner over a 550-foot right-of-way to connect wind farms to the Goose Creek substation was rejected by the court Monday. In a brief unanimous decision, the court denied the utility’s attempt to have the state’s highest court overturn a Cheyenne County district judge’s ruling that Xcel Energy did not have the power to use eminent domain to acquire the right of way. Xcel Energy argued that the case raised serious statewide issues on the future of clean energy policy in Colorado...
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Is Raeden setting a new data center standard in Colorado Springs?
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Is Raeden setting a new data center standard in Colorado Springs?

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Jason Green will take the hard questions. That is the pitch. The co-founder and president of Raeden says his industry has never done a good job showing up to answer for itself, so he has. "I've just kind of held the mantle of that," he said. In interviews before his data center goes to the Colorado Springs City Council, he made himself available for whatever anyone wanted to throw at him. Whether that adds up to a new way of building data centers, or a well-argued case for a project a lot of his neighbors still do not want, is the question Colorado Springs has to settle on Sept. 17. The project Project Taurus would put an artificial intelligence data center in the old Intel chip plant at 1565 High Tech Way, off Gard...
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Colorado Voters Will Decide Right To Natural Gas in November
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Voters Will Decide Right To Natural Gas in November

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics A citizen initiative that seeks to enshrine the right to natural gas has qualified for the November ballot, Colorado’s election office confirmed on Thursday. Petitions containing signatures for Initiative No. 177 were turned in to the Secretary of State’s Office for review in late June. On Thursday, the Secretary of State’s Office said 146,165 of the 189,508 signatures collected were valid, surpassing the threshold. The initiative from Advance Colorado establishes consumers’ right to purchase natural gas for cooking and heating their homes and businesses, as well as the right of distributors and utilities to sell natural gas to homes and businesses. “Natural gas is a clean, reliable and affordable form of energy...
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Colorado’s Renewable Energy Milestone Looks Different When Coal Outages Are Counted
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Independence Institute, Approved, State

Colorado’s Renewable Energy Milestone Looks Different When Coal Outages Are Counted

By Sarah Montalbano | Independence Institute On July 9, 2026, I wrote an article for the Independence Institute breaking down the math behind Colorado’s renewable energy milestone in Q1 2026 and explaining why it is largely driven by the Comanche 3 coal outage, rather than a surge in wind and solar generation. For Coloradans, it’s worth checking if milestones like these are real, because figures like these are cited as proof that the state can shed its remaining coal and natural gas without consequences for reliability and affordability. The article’s main point, which was supported with EIA generation data, was that Colorado produced less in-state electricity in Q1 2026, and therefore the share of electricity generated by wind and solar looked larger beca...
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Colorado’s newest coal plant hasn’t run since August 2025. A national report suggests why.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s newest coal plant hasn’t run since August 2025. A national report suggests why.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Xcel Energy's Comanche 3 power plant in Pueblo went offline on August 12, 2025, after elevated vibrations damaged the turbine. Nearly a year later, it still hasn't produced a single watt. According to Xcel's most recent monthly report to state regulators in Proceeding 25V-0480E, filed July 22, the plant's turbine rotor had to be shipped off-site for repair by Mitsubishi. The parts came back this summer. Workers are now in the middle of reassembling the unit. The company's current estimate for return to service is mid-August 2026. That's twelve months offline for Colorado's newest, largest coal plant, a 750-megawatt facility that cost $1.3 billion to build and runs about $34.5 million a year to operate. The outage ha...
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Colorado’s renewable milestone deserves a reality check
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s renewable milestone deserves a reality check

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Sarah Montalbano, the author of the Complete Colorado piece below makes a great point in her article about renewables. In response to a recent article by fellow energy writer Allen Best, see the second link below, about Colorado hitting an energy milestone of “More than half the state’s electricity came from wind, solar and hydro during the first months of 2026”, Montalbano notes that perhaps it’s not time for celebrating yet. Quoting from her Complete piece, “The trouble is that this jubilant announcement of a ‘majority’ renewables power grid owes more to a stark drop in coal-fired generation than the wind and solar that was added. Percentages rely on both the numerator — how much wind, solar, and hydropower...
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Xcel says it has no affordability crisis. Its customers and regulatory filings tell another story.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Xcel says it has no affordability crisis. Its customers and regulatory filings tell another story.

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Every week, Carlos H. sits down with his bills and works out what his family can go without. Some weeks it is dinner. “I just opt out to say, hey, okay, maybe won’t be cooking up something tonight, so we can just make ends meet,” the Denver father said. Some weeks it is gas—a quarter tank instead of a full one, and the math of whether that gets him to the next payday. He has a 14-year-old daughter and a baby due in February. His electric bill runs $120 to $150 a month. A proposed Xcel settlement could push it higher. “We don’t have an affordability crisis,” Robert Kenney, president of Xcel Energy Colorado, told the House Energy and Environment Committee on April 23, arguing against a proposal to give regulators more power over how util...
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