CSU concerned state’s latest billion dollar clean energy mandate will increase customer rates
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Colorado Springs Utilities CEO Travis Deal said he was surprised when Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced last week the state would increase its clean energy initiatives, which Deal said places strain on CSU and, ultimately, its customers.
On Feb. 26, Polis launched an updated comprehensive climate action plan for a “clean energy future.” The original plan released in 2021, which Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) supported, called for an 80% carbon reduction by 2030. This new plan, called Roadmap 2.0, now calls for 100% clean electricity generation by 2040. Deal said it isn’t sustainable.
“We just do not have the technology,” he said. “The financial impact of this is going to be extreme.”
Deal said achieving 80% carbon reduction by 2030 was already expensive, costing CSU more than $1 billion. He said reaching 97% is an additional $244 million, but it’s the final 3% that will break the bank, costing CSU about $1.4 billion. This is because relying solely on renewables, like solar and wind, isn’t reliable and requires much more infrastructure costs than coal or gas, Deal said.
“You have to overbuild,” he said. “That's why to make up that last 3% is so exceptionally expensive, because we don't have a baseload power.”
Many of these additional expenses will fall on the shoulders of CSU customers. Deal said CSU is currently calculating what these transition plans will cost customers, so he didn’t feel comfortable giving a definitive number. But he said other utility companies in other states with clean energy initiatives have raised rates for customers by 15-30%. Deal said this transition could also create reliability concerns.
“It could be outages,” he said. “It could be brownouts. It could be those things which we as a utility company never want to cross that bridge when we start getting into impact.”
CSU isn’t against zero carbon. However, Deal said there just isn’t enough technology right now to make it cost-efficient. He said the original plan of 80% carbon reduction by 2030 was achievable, but the new mandates from the state place financial burdens on customers and jeopardize reliability.
“I think technology will get there. We can deliver zero carbon,” Deal said. “We are just not there yet. It may be within my current lifespan or maybe later. We don't know when that's going to be, but I do have 100% that we will get to a carbon-free baseload power at some point. It’s just not now.”
Deal said there were no conversations between the state and CSU, the second-largest utility company in Colorado, about increasing its clean energy requirements. CSU said it submitted comments to the state expressing its concerns but never received a response.
“We want to make sure that we have a solid plan and that we get to the best place we can as an organization and at the state without overcommitting too much now and waiting for some of this technology to come around,” Deal said.
KRDO13 Investigates reached out to Polis’ office about Deal’s concerns. It said CSU participated in multiple stakeholder meetings. Polis wasn’t available for an interview, but the Colorado Energy Office provided a statement:
"The reality is that renewable energy saves Coloradans money and protects the future of our state, which is why Governor Polis and his administration have made Colorado a national model for clean energy work. The Department of Defense agrees and believes that clean energy is an affordable and important contributor to national security through diversity of supply and reduced exposure to global fossil fuel prices and volatile markets. In the coming months, the Polis Administration will be launching an analysis of policy and technical pathways to utilize clean energy to secure and harden military installations in Colorado, and we look forward to working again with CSU and other partners in this effort. Colorado has some of the lowest utility costs in the country according to a recent study.”
- Colorado Energy Office
