Senate Bill 252\u2019s biggest effect falls on Tri-State Generation and Transmission, which supplies electricity to rural cooperatives such as Empire Electric Association, electric providers in Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n
Currently, rural co-ops will have to supply 10 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020, while big utilities such as Xcel Energy in Denver have a 30 percent standard. SB 252 raises the standard for Tri-State to 25 percent by 2020.<\/p>\n
Senate President John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, is the sponsor. Speaker of the House Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, will carry the bill in the House if it passes the Senate as expected.<\/p>\n
Gov. John Hickenlooper sent an official from his energy office to express the administration\u2019s support at a hearing Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis bill was drafted to accomplish what we feel we need to accomplish for Colorado for its clean air and jobs. We understand there\u2019s opposition,\u201d Morse said.<\/p>\n
Xcel fought against renewable energy until voters and the Legislature forced it on the company, and now Xcel is a national model for clean energy, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe market\u2019s not going to do it itself,\u201d Morse said.<\/p>\n
However, the Colorado Rural Electric Association\u2019s executive director said legislators are confused about the renewable-electricity business.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand how these systems work. We really don\u2019t need a lot of help from you all to figure this out,\u201d said CREA\u2019s Kent Singer.<\/p>\n
Tri-State draws most of its power from coal, and it has fought against renewable-energy mandates.<\/p>\n
Officials from the company said the bill would cost them at least $2 billion, bringing a 20 percent increase in electricity bills.<\/p>\n
Supporters of the bill doubted those numbers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no way this bill could cause Tri-State or its members to incur billions of dollars in cost. I don\u2019t know where they get that number,\u201d said Bruce Driver, a lawyer for Western Resource Advocates.<\/p>\n
The bill limits rate increases on consumers\u2019 bills to cover the cost of more renewable energy to 2 percent \u2013 the same cap that exists for big utilities like Xcel.<\/p>\n
Ron Binz, a former chairman of the Public Utilities Commission, said Coloradans have a mistaken impression that renewable power costs more because the state started using more wind power at the same time a large, expensive coal plant came online in Pueblo.<\/p>\n
\u201cWind is actually saving money every time a wind project comes on,\u201d Binz said.<\/p>\n
SB 252 also allows methane captured from coal mines or garbage dumps to be used to meet the renewable-power mandate. Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, said Democrats killed a Republican bill on coal-mine methane earlier this year. He implied that Democrats voted it down in order to use the idea to build a coalition behind their renewable-energy mandate.<\/p>\n
The Senate State Affairs Committee voted 3-2 to advance the bill in its first hearing Monday. The bill\u2019s next stop is the full Senate.<\/p>\n