The Colorado Sun just laid out a story most normal folks will never see coming until it hits their bill: Xcel got cleared to build a huge new slate of solar, wind, and battery projects, and even the Colorado Public Utilities Commission is getting a little wary about what it costs. Translation: this is not a vibe. This is your monthly budget.
What happened, in plain English: Colorado’s biggest power provider is hustling to start projects before federal tax credits expire that could cut building costs by as much as 50%. And the PUC, the folks who say yes or no and decide what you get charged for, is signaling caution on cost. When the regulator is nervous, you should at least sit up straight.
Why should Weld County and the rest of Colorado care? Because the Great Suburban Normie needs to become more and more aware of the Public Utilities Commission. These three gubernatorially appointed anons have a ton of, um, power over two things you actually need: what it will cost to power your lives and whether that power is reliable. You can survive a bad tweet. You cannot run a household or a business on a blackout.
This whole system is a regulatory, legislative game where everyone gets to feel morally superior and nobody personally pays when the math goes sideways. Spoiler: the cost will be passed along to you, the chump, I mean, consumer. That is how it always works when “policy” meets “ratepayer.”
Let’s not pretend the PUC operates in a vacuum. Their hands are tied by the virtue signalers, I mean legislators, under the Gold Dome who are hell-bent on choosing energy winners and mandating an unreliable renewable future. If it worked, they wouldn’t need a mandate. But mandates are the Denver/Boulder Bubble’s love language.
Now, battery storage matters. Battery storage is a key to reliability. But it comes with real-world baggage the press releases never mention. Batteries are made from materials pulled from environmentally destroying mines halfway around the world in places who regularly chant “death to America.” And those supply chains are also under the heavy burden of Trump’s tariffs, according to the way this debate is playing out. You don’t get to call it clean and then outsource the mess and the leverage to people who don’t like us. That’s not compassion. That’s outsourcing responsibility.
Meanwhile, clean-burning, plentiful, produced right here in Weld County natural gas is saying, I’m right here, in the room, ready to generate all the power you need, reliably and affordably. But that’s not the winner the legislature has chosen, so shut up and sit down, normie. The legislature knows better for your life than you. Rules for thee, exemptions for me, classic.
Source: The Colorado Sun
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