Press Release

For Immediate Release
17 January 2007
Contact: Craig Cox, 303-679-9331

“New Energy Economy” Legislative Agenda:

Energy for a Prosperous Future

Conifer, Colo. — Governor Bill Ritter, Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald and House Majority Leader Alice Madden have laid out an aggressive —and important— new energy agenda. If their proposed energy legislation is adopted by the Colorado General Assembly, citizens around the state will benefit from greater electricity rate stability, over a billion dollars in new private investment in rural areas, and reduced pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions. At the end of the day, Colorado will have a modern electricity infrastructure capable of meeting 21st-century power demands.

Here are three examples:

Transmission legislation: With a modernized and more robust electricity transmission grid, more cost-stable renewable energy can be delivered to customers more quickly. This will provide important economic benefits to communities where projects are located, and to consumers along the rapidly growing Front Range. We congratulate Sen. Fitz-Gerald and Rep. Buffie McFadyen for their leadership on this important bill.

Renewable energy standard legislation: Wind energy has already saved Xcel Energy’s consumers at least $14 million in the past three years due to its long-term cost stability. With the legislation by Rep. Jack Pommer and Sen. Gail Schwartz that doubles Colorado’s renewable energy standard, ratepayers will gain additional long-term cost stability through greater renewable energy generation.

Net metering legislation: Rep. Judy Solano’s bill on net metering for customers of rural electric cooperative associations will allow individuals to harness renewable energy resources at their homes, ranches and farms, selling excess power back to their local coops. This bill will help citizens statewide to harness Colorado’s wealth of renewable resources that are currently untapped at local levels.

Once these and other new energy bills are passed by the 2007 Colorado General Assembly and signed into law, be prepared to see construction trailers popping up around the state’s rural areas as the renewable energy industry gears up to invest in a new energy future that will create benefits statewide.

The Interwest Energy Alliance is a trade association that represents the nation’s leading companies in the renewable energy industry, bringing them together with some of the West’s leading non-governmental organizations to facilitate consensus-based approaches to new project development and transmission issues throughout the region.