| 3/14/2007 8:02:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter appeared before the Senate State. Veteran, and Military Affairs Committee to testify in favor of the bill proposed by Sen. Gail Schwartz to require 20 percent of energy from investor-owned utilities to come from renewable sources. Courtesy photo
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Schwartz gains support for renewable energy bill
by Jason Starr
Mail Staff Writer
The two energy companies that serve Chaffee County will be required to increase their renewable energy portfolios by 10 percent if a bill sponsored by Sen. Gail Schwartz continues toward approval.
House Bill 1281 passed out of the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee Tuesday on a party-line vote of 3-2.
For large, investor-owned utilities such as Xcel, which serves Salida, the bill would require 20 percent of energy to come from renewable resources by 2020. For smaller rural electric associations such as Sangre de Cristo Electric Association, which serves Buena Vista and parts of western Fremont and Custer counties, the requirement would be 10 percent.
Sangre de Cristo Chief Executive Officer Paul Erickson supports the bill partly because it treats different size utility companies differently. He consulted with Schwartz, who represents Chaffee County in Senate District 5, while she was writing the bill.
"Sen. Schwartz made the bill doable for us," Erickson said. "She was listening ... . The bill gives us the flexibility to engage renewables and do it in a way that is in the best interest of our consumers. It doesn't paint us with the same brush as the larger utilities like Xcel."
Renewable sources are defined in the bill as solar, wind, geothermal and biomass. Consideration also will be given to new hydroelectric technology, hydrogen and recycled energy. Fossil fuels and nuclear power are not eligible to satisfy the requirement.
The bill follows the lead of Amendment 37, which Colorado voters passed in 2004. The amendment created a 10 percent renewable requirement for large utilities by 2015 but made no requirement of rural electric associations. Schwartz's bill, which has passed through the House and now advances to the full Senate floor, doubles the requirement for large companies and brings smaller associations into the renewable fold for the first time.
Republicans Ron May and Dave Schultheis, both from Colorado Springs, voted against the bill Tuesday in committee. May said it would negatively affect Colorado Springs Utilities, the largest municipally owned electric provider in the state, and increase rates for customers.
"I think Colorado Springs has a fantastic utility and this is going to screw the thing up," May said.
He added that the company's coal contracts are well established, and he is reluctant require it to do business with other sources.
"You make deals based on what's there, then someone comes in and mandates this on top of that," May said. "It means my rate-payers will be subsidizing somebody's alternative energy."
The bill caps rate increases at 2 percent annually for investor-owned companies and 1 percent annually for rural electric associations and municipally owned providers.
"(Customers) are very concerned about not having their rates raised as a result of bringing this energy online," Schwartz said. "The cap is a good safeguard for the rate-payers."
In his conversations with Schwartz about the bill, Erickson argued for more emphasis on conservation, especially for schools and other government buildings. Otherwise, he said, companies will be putting renewable sources into an inefficient system.
"We've been beating the drum for mandated efficiency rather than mandated renewables, but we lost that argument," Erickson said.
Nonetheless, Sangre de Cristo is moving ahead with renewable strategies. Erickson did not reveal specifics but said wind, solar, geothermal and biomass are areas of interest to the association.
"We want to do what's right," he said. "We're consumer owned. We want to do what our consumers want ... . It's going to be tough, but sometimes doing the right thing isn't easy."
Gov. Bill Ritter testified in front of the committee Tuesday in support of the bill. It was his first appearance before a Legislative committee since he was elected last year. Increasing renewable energy was one of Ritter's main campaign platforms.
"What we're seeing is that the state's commitment to a strong renewable portfolio can be a catalyst for the new energy economy," he told committee members. "It's already helping us attract interest from national and international renewable energy development companies."
Xcel, the Rural Electric Associations - of which Sangre de Cristo is a member - and the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union have expressed support for the bill.
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