The Colorado Rural Electric
Association (CREA) successfully killed efforts to pass a bill that would have
created strong energy savings and big money benefits for Colorado homeowners and businesses.
"The
Colorado Rural Electric Association is a penny wise and a dollar foolish," said
Heather Maurer with the Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG). "The
rural utilities decision to block House Bill 1107 will cost Colorado homes and businesses $600 million
in money they would have saved on their energy bills."
House Bill 1107, sponsored by Sen. Jennifer Veiga (D-Senate)
and Rep. Claire Levy (D-Boulder) would have promoted energy efficiency for
rural, town, and municipal utilities and benefited nearly 1 million Coloradans.
CREA lobbied heavily to kill the bill in the Colorado Senate
State, Veterans, and
Military Affairs Committee today.
Energy efficiency is a key for
addressing Colorado’s
global warming pollution. HB 1107 would
have cut global warming pollution from Colorado’s
power plants by 1.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year by 2020.
"CREA’s move today was
wrong-headed and misguided. CREA could have been part of the solution in
tackling global warming pollution, instead they decided to be part of the
problem," said Pam Kiely, Legislative Director for Environment Colorado. "Energy efficiency is a win-win for our environment and our economy."
The legislation is the companion
bill one passed last year calling on investor-owned utilities in Colorado to invest at
least 2% of their revenue into efficiency programs. House Bill 1107 would have extended those
programs to electric cooperatives and municipal utilities. It is expected that between 2008 and 2020,
consumers would have realized $600 million in energy savings.
"Legislation adopted in 2007 is
stimulating investor-owned utilities such as Xcel Energy to greatly expand
their energy efficiency programs, to the great benefit of their customers,"
said Howard Geller, Executive Director of the Southwest Energy Efficiency
Project (SWEEP). "Rural electric cooperatives and municipalities need to get on
board."
The Southwest Energy Efficiency Project estimates that
adoption of HB1107 will result in 420 megawatts of peak power savings and 1.5
billion kilowatt-hours of electricity savings by 2020. The latter value is
equivalent to the electricity use of 170,000 typical homes in Colorado.
About House Bill 1107
·
Requires rural
electric cooperatives and municipal utilities with more than 5,000 customers to
spend 1% of revenue in 2009 on energy efficiency and 2% starting in 2010
·
Allows utilities
determine which energy efficiency programs to implement
·
Energy efficiency
programs include financial incentives, customer education, technical
assistance, and other activities that promote more efficient electricity use
·
Permits utilities use
funds from outside resources to meet the spending requirements
·
Requires affected
utilities to submit annual reports to the Governor’s Energy Office but does not
subject rural and municipal utilities to regulation by the Colorado PUC.
