Colorado Senate Bickers Over Utility Plan; Renewable-Energy Bill Pulled Off The Table After Revision
Mar 26 - Rocky Mountain News
Colorado utilities would have to look close to home for renewable energy sources under a bill working its way through the state legislature.
State senators made sure Wednesday that such power would come from within
Colorado or, at the very most, no farther than 15 miles from its borders.
And those sources wouldn't only have to be wind-power farms. They also could
be hydro-electric power.
Those were among the changes made to HB 1273, which eventually was pulled off
the table by its sponsor, Sen. Ken Kester, R-Las Animas, before a vote.
After the changes, Kester said he wasn't sure he still had the 18 votes to
assure its passage in the Senate.
That was no problem for Sen. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, who amended
the bill to allow all the renewable energy to come from hydro-power. He admitted
that he hopes the bill is dead and said he doesn't think it's needed.
"There's a huge wind farm in Lamar that apparently is a success, and it
was done without this bill," Lamborn said. "We don't need this.
"The way this bill is written, I'm convinced there will be higher costs
to consumers."
The Senate floor squabble over the bill, which already was approved in the
House, began when Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, amended it to allow up to 20
megawatts of the energy to come from hydro-power. That was twice as much as the
House allowed.
Lamborn then removed that limit to permit any amount of energy from
hydro-power.
"Hydro-power is good, it's renewable, it's clean, and if it's good for
up to 20 megawatts, it should be good for more than 20 megawatts," Lamborn
said.
Senate Majority Leader Mark Hillman, R-Burlington, chipped in with another
amendment requiring that the renewable energy sources be found in Colorado or
within 15 miles of the state's borders. There was no such restriction in the
House bill.
"If this is to benefit Colorado and Colorado landowners, we ought to
make sure it occurs in the state of Colorado," Hillman said.
But he included the 15-mile perimeter outside the state lines because he said
it "was conceivable that you would have a location, perhaps for a wind
farm, where you would need to straddle the state line."
Hillman's amendment also provides an out for the power companies if the
Public Utilities Commission determines that it's cheaper to use more traditional
sources for power. There also is an exemption if the renewable sources endanger
the reliability of power.
INFOBOX
Power to the people
House Bill 1273 would require investor-owned utilities to provide the
following amounts of power from renewable sources:
* 500 megawatts by 2006
* 900 megawatts by 2010
* 1,800 megawatts by 2020
1 megawatt provides the electrical needs for about 1,000 homes.