DENVER - The state ballot question that would require power companies to use more renewable energy won't significantly impact customers' electric bills, a California pro-sustainable energy group says.
In a study conducted by a Denver consultant for the San Francisco-based The Energy Foundation, Amendment 37 could ultimately result in a drop in power rates.
Denver consultant Ronald Binz, former head of the state Office of Consumer Counsel, said that while there are expensive up-front costs to developing electricity from such renewable sources as wind and solar, in the long run it will be cheaper than paying the expected increases in fossil fuels. Binz said fossil fuel costs will double in the next 20 years.
"The renewable measure's impact on consumer's bill will probably be unnoticeable," Binz said. "Most likely, statewide rates will be virtually unchanged."
But opponents to the measure that would require the state's 10 largest power suppliers to get at least 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2015 said such studies depend on which factors one considers.
Mac McLennan, chairman of Citizens for Sensible Energy Choices that is opposing the measure, said each company buys and sells power in a variety of ways, and trying to determine what electricity will cost 10 years from now is problematic at best.
"Every utility is going to have a different set of assumptions based on their system," McLennan said. "Any number of those assumptions will dictate different economics. Every time you change one assumptions, whether it be a gas price or any number of other things, you are going to change what your economics look like."
In his study, Binz said that starting in the first year the amendment would be in place until 2024, Xcel Energy, the state's largest utility, would be forced to impose about $12.6 million in rates. That means that, on average, residential customers would see an increase of about 1 cent a month over the next 20 years.
Statewide, however, consumers likely will see a 1-cent drop in energy prices, he said.
He said that's due, in part, because renewable energy prices would act "as a hedge" against spikes in natural gas prices.
The amendment limits to 50 cents a month how much more consumers can be charged to pay the costs of getting power from renewable sources.
Additionally, Binz said the state will benefit from improved water use, air quality and rural economic development as farmers and ranchers lease parts of their land for such things as wind and solar farms and biomass plants.