“Colorado has fallen alarmingly behind statutory goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions for 2025 and 2030.” This is the big takeaway from a new state report to the Air Quality Control Commission. An analysis by Western Resource Advocates shows a gap of 1.3 million tons annually by 2025.
Just a few days before this news appeared, Xcel’s coal-fired plant in Pueblo (“Comanche 3”), had once again broken down … this time in a sudden outage during a heat wave. Pueblo 3 has frequently been offline or unable to generate electricity for a cumulative two years since 2010.
Earlier this month, CORE, the state’s largest electric cooperative, announced that it was exercising its right under agreements with Xcel to withdraw its ownership in the coal plant in Pueblo. “Our fundamental claim is that through many of these instances over the years, they have failed to prudently operate the plant,” said Jeff Baudier, CEO of CORE.
Colorado Xcel customers are paying over $100 million per year to keep the coal plant generating profits for Xcel whether it is working or not. Xcel has stated the plant is not needed in terms of system reliability.
Since we are falling behind in our efforts to cut greenhouse gasses and the state’s largest single emitter of greenhouse gasses is an expensive lemon that should never have been built, it seems quite clear that it’s time to close the plant down. Pull the Plug on Pueblo 3.
Chris Hoffman, Boulder