Dec 28 - McClatchy-Tribune Business News Formerly Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Dan England Greeley Tribune, Colo.

When Bill Ritter started his campaign for governor, the first flare he sent up was a plan for renewable energy.

In his position paper on his Web site, he talked about the need for more energy-efficent washers and dryers, traffic lights and buildings. He channeled Al Gore and warned us about global warming. But most of all, Ritter talked about a new economy -- one based on the jobs created going after all the energy generated by sunlight, wind power, methane gas, ethanol and research to find new methods.

It was the first big position paper he issued, said Evan Dreyer, spokesman for Ritter's office. "It was his stake in the ground that the new energy economy was one of the bedrocks of his campaign.

"Now we have an opportunity to give shape to those plans."

Ritter's victory may be the biggest reason why northern Colorado officials believe this year's session in the state legislature will feature a lot of talk about alternative energy sources.

"It will be one of the primary factors this session," said Jim Reisberg (D-Greeley). "The governor's campaign made us think it's an important priority. The question is how much can get done this year?"

Colorado has a ton of potential for being one of the leaders in the country in finding and developing renewable energy, Reisberg said. But tapping that potential won't happen all in this session.

Reisberg will carry a bill to include bio fuels in the requirement to blend gas with other sources such as ethanol. He wants to see Colorado's universities encourage research in the area. Also, the legislature might see a push to speed up the deadlines established when voters approved Amendment 37 in 2004. The initiative requires the state's largest utilities to obtain 3 percent of their electricity from renewable energy resources by 2007 and 10 percent by 2015.

Finding the funding for all that might be difficult, however, Reisberg said. The money from a tax paid by oil and gas companies to drill will be reduced by 41 percent this year, and legislators generally used money from that tax to pay for the efforts to develop renewable energy.

"Without that, someone will have to figure out how to fund things along that line, and where that money will come from," Reisberg said.

The funding should be back to normal in 2007-08, so plans could be made this year and developed next year.

Dan Sanders Jr., company manager of Front Range Energy, believes ethanol is a key piece of the renewable energy puzzle and thinks the legislature should make it more available.

"In Minnesota, you can go to any city and state and find a couple stations where you can fill up," Sanders Jr. said. "In Greeley, there's one station, and that's it. It's hard to find a place to go, and it has to be convenient or else consumers won't embrace it."

However, though ethanol could benefit the agricultural base of Weld County, it could also harm it, said Glenn Vaad (R-Greeley), who served two terms on the Board of Weld County Commissioners before getting elected this year to the state legislature.

"We're a corn-deficit state already," Vaad said. "Encouraging ethanol as a state is a ticklish thing because all the corn going to that will challenge our livestock raisers. There's a lot of unintended consequences, so we'll have to be slow and deliberate."

Given that ethanol plants are cropping up all over Weld, Vaad said he's not sure the ethanol industry needs any help or subsidies from the legislature.

Regardless of what happens, the governor, and now, perhaps the state legislature, plan to push renewable energy as a way to become less dependent on fossil fuels and to develop the state's economy.

"We want to create and be a hub for a 21st-century industry," Dreyer said. "Renewable energy is a perfect example of that."

About the series

The Tribune is presenting "At the Capitol," a daily series of stories about what to expect out of the Colorado General Assembly's upcoming session. Lawmakers will be sworn in, and the new session begins the next day. Tomorrow, we take a look at the water issues.