Colorado State Republican Wants Renewable Energy Mandates Scaled Back

A couple of members of the Colorado State legislature want to scale back some of the Clean Air-Clean Jobs Act signed into law in 2010. I wrote a piece on the signing here. This law was developed and supported by a broad coalition including Xcel Energy, Democratic and Republican lawmakers, and environmental groups. This type of robust coalition is rare these days in this political climate. One of the state legislator's main reasons for wanting to scale back this law is "cost". The cost is of course an economic one. Changing over to renewable energies or to lower-emitting fossil fuels like natural gas is going to cost us all more money than if we were to just stay with coal. However, there will be other costs (that will eventually cost more money) to our health, to our environment, and to our society if we stay the course with coal-burning power plants. We must continue to move forward with our energy policies and any attempt to pull us back is short-sighted thinking.