Colorado general assembly clears measure to increase renewable energy requirement

The Colorado state senate gave final approval Friday to a bill that would dramatically increase the amount of renewable energy that must be generated by investor-owned utilities.

HB 1001, which would increase the percentage of a utility's total power production from renewable sources to 30 percent by the year 2020, is now on the way to Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter.

Colorado voters approved in 2004 an initiative that requires investor-owned utilities, and rural electric cooperatives that don't opt out of the requirement, to produce 10 percent of their power from renewable sources.

The state's largest rural electric cooperative, Intermountain Rural Electric Association, opted out of the Amendment 37 mandate.

In 2007 the state's general assembly negated that decision. Legislation enacted into law that year by the Democrat-dominated legislature imposed a floor of ten percent renewable energy on the cooperatives and municipal utilities.

Rural electric cooperatives produce about 23 percent of the Centennial state's electricity, while municipal power providers account for the remaining 18 percent.

Colorado is home to two investor-owned utilities: Excel Energy and Black Hills Electric. Excel, which primarily serves the Denver metropolitan area, produces about 55 percent of the state's electricity.

Black Hills Electric, which primarily serves customers in southeastern Colorado, produces about 4 percent of Colorado's electricity.

The 2007 legislation required investor-owned utilities to raise the percentage of power that must be produced from renewable sources to 20 percent by 2020.

That law, and the bill approved Friday, excuses utilities from meeting the renewable energy standard if doing so would cause electricity rates to rise more than 2 percent in a year.

If Ritter signs the bill as he has indicated he will do, Colorado will have the second-most demanding renewable energy standard in the west.

California requires investor-owned utilities to generate 33 percent of the electricity they sell from renewable sources by 2020.

Excel Corp. had indicated in February that it would support HB 1001.