Tag: Intermountain Rural Electric Association
Xcel officials: 30 percent renewable energy target by 2020 ‘not impossible’
Officials for Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest utility, said Wednesday the Minnesota-based company is willing to consider upping the state’s renewable energy standard (RES) to 30 percent by the year 2020, a proposal highlighted by Gov. Ritter in a speech marking the beginning of the legislative session this week and at the center of the first House bill introduced yesterday as the session got underway.
Ritter wants to see renewable energy standard upped to 30 percent...
Announcing his agenda for the legislative session that gets under way Wednesday, Gov. Bill Ritter Tuesday revealed a plan to increase Colorado’s renewable energy...
State Sen. Mike Kopp on payroll of climate-change-questioning IREA electric co-op
As lawmakers once again try to put the heat on the state’s largest rural electric co-op this legislative session, at least one state senator...
Reformers turn to elections to clean up co-op energy
Efforts to reform the recalcitrant Intermountain Rural Electric Association, the state’s largest energy cooperative, will be more subtle this legislative session. Instead of seeking, for example, to mandate energy efficiency, a Boulder lawmaker and new energy advocates are looking to change the way co-op board members are elected.
State Rep. Levy plans bill to clean up electric co-op elections
A Boulder lawmaker says she’ll introduce a bill next session aimed at cleaning up questionable campaign practices in rural electric association (REA) board elections.Claire Levy, D-Boulder, told the Colorado Independent Tuesday she is still working on a draft of the bill she’ll introduce in the upcoming legislative session in January, but she outlined the basics.
IREA Voices touts new study on looming coal shortages
IREA Voices, a citizen activist group formed to combat the climate change policies of the state’s largest rural electric co-op, is pointing its members...
Aspen SkiCo official praise ‘revolution’ in rural electric co-ops
The director of sustainability for one of the state’s largest ski companies says there is a quiet revolution going at the state’s rural electric co-ops, where previously ignored and under-publicized board elections are seeing some real upheaval.
Yampa Valley electric co-op sees same renewable versus conventional power struggle
Yet one more rural electric association (REA) is seeing the same sort of board election upheaval going on at REAs across the state, where renewable energy advocates are battling status-quo incumbents bent on keeping electric rates low through conventional energy loads.
Electric co-ops legally need to disclose investment risks of coal-fired power
Rural electric co-ops that gamble on low-cost coal while largely keeping their member-owners in the dark about future financial risks may be playing with federal regulatory fire in the form of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, according to an attorney for the renewable-energy sector.
Ron Lehr, attorney for Interwest Energy Alliance and former chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC), said board members of rural electric co-ops need to go to great lengths to divulge to their members the potential risks of investing in coal-fired power plants with a possible federal carbon tax or cap-and-trade policy looming.
Clean-energy advocates challenge status quo electric co-op election
Despite significant strides in the renewable energy arena, Holy Cross Energy on Colorado’s Western Slope is not immune to the wave of environmental activism sweeping rural electric co-ops across the state.