Last Thursday, I had the privilege of standing shoulder to shoulder with industry leaders, local workers, and community members as we officially brought the Mountain Peak Power Plant online in Keenesburg. It was more than a ribbon-cutting ceremony – it was a proud moment for Weld County and a wake-up call to the rest of Colorado. This 162-megawatt, clean-burning natural gas plant isn’t just a new piece of infrastructure – it’s a bold reminder of what real energy leadership looks like.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t some overhyped, subsidy-hungry green energy fantasy that only works when the sun’s out or the wind’s having a good day. Mountain Peak is reliable, dispatchable, on-demand power. It’s built with cutting-edge GE Vernova LM2500XPRESS turbines that can go from cold to full output in under five minutes. That’s the kind of speed and flexibility you need when it’s zero degrees outside, solar panels are buried in snow, and the windmills are taking a nap. It’s power when you need it – not when it feels like showing up.
And here’s the real kicker: it was built in a blazing-fast 20 months – start to finish. No drama, no delays, no bureaucratic paralysis. Why? Because Weld County got the project through the planning process in record time. No red tape. No nonsense. Just real collaboration between public officials and private industry, working together like grown-ups to get the job done. Imagine what else this country could build if the regulators and professional hand-wringers under the Gold Dome would just step aside for a minute and let the adults handle it.
Even better? The fuel is homegrown – clean-burning natural gas pulled straight from Weld County soil. We’re not dependent on foreign energy or California pipe dreams. We’re using our own resources, responsibly and efficiently, to power homes, schools, farms, and businesses across the region. This is exactly what Colorado needs as it grows – not fragile ideology dressed up as policy, but infrastructure that actually works.
As United Power CEO Mark Gabriel said at the ribbon cutting: “This is what we do.” And in Weld County, we do it well. We feed this state, we power this state, and we don’t apologize for doing it with excellence and common sense. Mountain Peak wasn’t built by accident – it was built by getting government out of the damn road and letting professionals deliver what they know how to do: real, safe, affordable, on-demand power.
So here’s the message to the green energy think-tank crowd and the regulatory hall monitors down in Denver: Step aside. We’ve got this. You can’t build a future on hashtags and hypotheticals. You build it with steel, sweat, and yes – natural gas. Mountain Peak proves it. Weld County delivers it. And Colorado Democrats should take note.
