For all the talk about renewables, coal is still king

The Guv and the state legislature set many loft goals of 100% renewables by 2040. I agree with the phasing out of coal. But the leap to renewables in such a short time – well, you just can’t get there from here.

The state legislature seems hell bent in mandating electrification and renewable usage. It’s not consumer or market driven. It’s governmental mandates and it’s wrong.

The vast majority of the improvement in air quality experienced in this state can be credited to improvements in technology and the addition of natural gas as a fuel in electricity generation. And if the Colorado Legislature has electrification stars in their eyes, we should be robustly talking about nuclear power generation. But they don’t consider the cleanest, safest form of electricity generation – nuclear – to be green or renewable. Their legislative output says so.

Turn to this article by the incredible bright Jake Fogleman…

Colorado’s electricity sector experienced considerable changes in 2023 according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Coal remained the king, generating a third of Colorado’s annual electricity despite a decrease from 37% in 2022. Natural gas production saw a surge, contributing to 30% of the state’s electricity. Wind generation decreased slightly at approximately 28% while output from Solar PV more than doubled, contributing to over 6% of the state’s annual electricity. The average retail price of electricity for residential ratepayers slightly increased from 14.19 ¢ / kWh in 2022 to 14.32 ¢ / kWh in 2023.

Bottom line – a state legislature hell bent on mandating a power market will do nothing but increase cost and decrease reliability for consumers.