Colorado Politics reports Xcel shut off power in parts of northern Colorado because of high winds and extremely dry conditions tied to a Red Flag Warning. That shutoff started at 8 a.m. and hit people near Fort Collins and Loveland along the I-25 corridor, according to Xcel’s outage map. Nothing says “modern reliability” like turning the lights off on purpose. Progress, apparently.
Here’s why normal people in Weld and across northern Colorado should care. When the power goes out, life stops. Schools scramble. Small businesses eat the losses. Families lose heat, internet, and the ability to work from home. And yes, it is fair to ask: How many kids could not attend school? How many businesses had to turn away customers and clients? Those aren’t “political” questions. Those are bill-paying questions.
Let’s not pretend this is some exotic, unforeseeable event. This isn’t a hurricane or a once in a century disaster. This is wind. In Colorado. In January. For the love of pete! We get wind. We get dry. We get red flag days. If our system’s answer is “cut power to communities,” then what we really have is a fragility plan with a public-relations bow on top.
And I’m going to say the quiet part out loud: How Colorado, you voted for this! Not you personally, neighbor trying to get dinner on the table. I mean the statewide habit of letting the Denver/Boulder Bubble run energy policy like it’s a group project in feelings. They’ve spent years pushing a regulatory culture where reliability gets treated like an optional feature, right up until it’s your freezer thawing.
Now, the article says Xcel cited high winds and dry conditions and pointed to the National Weather Service Red Flag Warning. I’m not disputing the weather. Reality doesn’t take petitions. But when the official response from the utility that keeps asking the regulatory agency that oversees it to jack your rates is to shut off the electricity to thousands of people and then tell them its for their own good, people are going to smell something off. And they should.
If you want public trust, you do not get it by saying “it’s for your own good” while families and employers take the hit. That’s not compassion. That’s outsourcing responsibility. Own the tradeoffs. Explain the thresholds. Explain the plan to reduce shutoffs next time. Show me the numbers.
Bring receipts. We can disagree without lying. But we are not going to normalize “planned blackouts” as Colorado’s new winter tradition.
Source: Colorado Politics
