Updated by Staff

DENVER— Momentum for House Bill 1365 continued this week as the House Transportation and Energy Committee voted 10-1 to endorse the measure, after Gov. Ritter encouraged members to back a framework for retiring or retrofitting coal-fired power plants along the Front Range, which is called for in the proposed legislation.

Ritter said the costs of maintaining 40+ year old coal plants would also grow if the federal government puts a price tag on carbon. He said changes are coming regardless of whether the state decides to act now.

“It’s only a question of whether we do it smarter,” he told members of the House Transportation and Energy Committee voted 10-1 to endorse the bill, which now moves on to the appropriations committee for a cost review.

The single “no” vote was offered by Rep. Randy Baumgardner, who represents six counties in the western part of the state. The bill now moves on to the appropriations committee for a cost review.

As reported in Colorado Energy News a few days ago, the bill would require the state’s two investor owned utilities, Xcel Energy and the smaller Black Hills Corp., to reduce emissions by at least 70 percent at some of their power plants over the next seven years. They would have to give priority to replacing them with ones fired by cleaner burning natural gas but they would also be able to consider using efficiencies and other cleaner energy sources, such as burning beetle-killed trees, or renewable energy. Coal-fired plants that capture the CO2 they produce would also be an option but that is a more costly approach than burning natural gas.

All the plans would have to be approved by the Public Utilities Commission, which would consider how much they would would increase electric bills, particularly for low-income customers.

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