GREEN ENERGY GOALS ARE UNACHIEVABLE That is the message from a recent article by Sarah Montalbano from the Independence Institute. I’m specifically talking about the Clean Heat Energy Plan, which requires that Colorado gas utilities reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 41 percent compared to 2015 levels by 2035. The law also aims for 22 percent reductions by 2030 and, critically, four percent emissions reductions by the end of 2025. So how is it going?

Xcel won’t say so directly, but the company has already whiffed its 2025 target. That’s despite spending $65.4 million in 2025 for 24,821 metric tons of program-attributed emissions reductions.

It isn’t a surprise to Xcel that it’s missing the mark, given the company’s own consultants said in a 2024 filing that “achieving the 2025 goal is extremely unlikely.” The PUC approved the plan anyway, waiving the 2.5 percent cost cap on the grounds that doing so was in the public interest.

But the PUC seems to have allowed them to pick our pockets to reach the “extremely unlikely” green goals set by the idiots in the Legislature and Governor’s office. So if they don’t meet the goals, do the ratepayers who have been soaked get their money back? The biggest takeaway is that the whole scheme relies on forcing YOU AND ME to give up our efficient natural gas furnaces for a new more expensive electric system. No thank you. I’ll talk to Sarah today at 1 about the whole thing. Read her story here.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.