Guest Opinion (originally appearing in the Boulder Daily Camera Dec. 14th)

By Leslie Glustrom

Xcel has announced several rate increases lately, but the biggest and most important is the 19.8 percent increase in the mysterious “GRSA,” a fancy acronym for Xcel’s base rates.

Combined with other rate changes, the GRSA increase will lead to an 8.39 percent increase in residential bills. Sadly, most of this increase to base rates is to pay for investments in “old energy” fossil fuel plants, specifically the billion dollar new coal plant in Pueblo and a little less than $200 million for new gas turbines at Fort St.Vrain, near Greeley.

Xcel is doing a lot of things right these days, but old fossil fuel habits have gotten the better of them in recent years–like a dieter trying to quietly sneak those late night brownies and potato chips. The problem of course, is that Xcel expects ratepayers to pick up the tab for its fossil fuel indulgences.

With investments in wind and concentrating solar power, smart grid and vehicle-to-grid, energy storage and energy efficiency, Xcel is bringing together the pieces that will be needed to “keep the lights on” as we deplete our inheritance of fossil fuels and come to recognize the persistent and pernicious nature of the seemingly innocent CO2 molecule.

Nonetheless, all of Xcel’s good works can’t cover up its recent
fossil fuel mistakes.

Xcel’s biggest mistake was charging ahead with the new
billion-dollar Unit 3 coal plant in Pueblo as it attempted to
recover from its 2002 stock price crash. As a result, Colorado
is now the unlucky owner of one of this country’s last
conventional coal plants, as coal plants in much less
environmentally-sensitive states are being turned back almost weekly.

Not only that, Xcel has spent a billion dollars on the boilers,
turbines and a towering smokestack for the new coal plant
without ensuring that it had a 50 year supply of coal and is
highly unlikely to be able to secure that coal. The mines that
supply the coal plant have less than a 20 year life span and
future sources of coal beyond that are highly uncertain. That
is good news for the planet, but terrible news for Colorado
ratepayers.

Xcel isn’t interested in the existing gas turbines because they
are owned by independent power producers. Rather than use these
existing turbines, Xcel wants to build its own gas turbines
because once approved, these capital investments make the
magical “GRSA” go up.

The Fort St. Vrain turbines were pushed through the Public
Utilities Commission to preserve Xcel’s 16 percent reserve
margin in 2009 — even though there were much cheaper demand
management options that Xcel failed to consider. Moreover, air
permit issues mean the Fort St. Vrain gas turbines will be
forced to sit idle over 90 percent of the time.

So just how dirty is a coal plant — even a new one with
pollution controls? Well, every day that the new Unit 3 in
Pueblo functions as a coal plant, it will emit over 20 million
pounds of carbon dioxide and more than a quarter of a pound of
mercury and hundreds of pounds of other pollutants including
particulates, sulfur compounds and hazardous pollutants like
arsenic and selenium. All of that is on top of the streams of
pollution already coming from the existing Units 1 and 2 in
Pueblo. As for water, the new Unit 3 coal plant will consume
over 4 million gallons of water a day from the Arkansas River.

If you don’t want to pay for Xcel’s ill-conceived fossil fuel
investments, let your elected officials at all levels know –
and most importantly contact Governor Ritter and tell him it
isn’t right to make ratepayers pay for unneeded and unwise
fossil fuel mistakes. If you do nothing, then we’ll all soon be
paying for, and complicit in, Xcel’s fossil foolhardiness.

Leslie Glustrom is a founding member of Clean Energy Action, a
citizen group dedicated to bringing clean energy solutions to
Colorado. Xcel’s rate increase for the coal plant and the Fort
St. Vrain gas turbines is presently before the Public Utilities
Commission. If you’d like to get involved or would like further
information contact Leslie at lglustrom@gmail.com or
303-245-8637.