Compiled by CEN Staff

Tri-State Generation and Transmission is Colorado’s second-largest power supplier, behind Xcel Energy. That position, say environmentalists, means it should be subject to state oversight when it comes to building new power plants. They argue that if such a scenario happened, it would virtually guarantee that power suppliers like Tri-State — currently regulated by several federal agencies — will adhere to Colorado’s new mandates on renewable energy.

Putting their words into action, several environmental groups and their members have inundated the Colorado Public Utilities Commission with thousands of e-mails, phone calls and letters, asking the agency to regulate Tri-State Generation and Transmission’s resource plans.

Right now, Tri-State doesn’t need PUC approval to construct power plants because, unlike Xcel Energy, it is an interstate business selling power to rural electric cooperatives in several states, including Colorado Wyoming, Nebraska and New Mexico. Under such conditions, the feds restrict individual states from imposing what the government says are burdensome rules.

The PUC has received more than 2,500 public comments in favor of having Tri-State’s business move under state oversight, with opponents to such a move countering with nearly as many.

Several major environmental advocacy groups contend the utility is not following Colorado’s energy policy on wind, solar and biomass resources, including the Sierra Club, the Environmental Defense Fund and Western Resource Advocates. Tri-State counters that the push to move its business under state oversight “lacks legal merit.”

State law requires co-operatives such as Tri-State to get 10 percent of their power from renewables by 2020. Currently the company generates less than one percent of its power from renewables, so it has a steep hill to climb in order to meet the mandated goal. 72 percent of Tri-State power comes from burning coal.

The environmental groups worry that Tri-State land- and water-rights purchases in southeastern Colorado are possible preparation for a future coal plant, although the power company says such worries are unfounded since it hasn’t finalized any plans for land it owns in that region of the state.

“The commission needs to look at their plans,” Bruce Driver, Western’s attorney, told the Denver Post. “There may be opportunity for coordination between Tri-State and Xcel, and (to) help Tri-State move beyond coal toward a 21st-century mix of energy resources.”

“Critics are in the habit of misrepresenting the direction of Tri-State’s resource planning,” the utility’s spokesperson, Jim Van Someren, said. The power company cites steps it is taking to diversify its portfolio, including its agreement a couple of weeks ago with First Solar to develop a 30-megawatt photovoltaic power plant — one of the largest in the world.