Colorado lawmakers will return to the Statehouse in January with an unlimited alternative to decrease vitality prices and enhance electrical energy reliability for Coloradans. Sure, inflation will possible nonetheless be excessive, however so are the alternatives for Republicans and Democrats to work collectively on the vitality points going through our state.
Because of new federal laws, billions in federal {dollars} and personal funding are going to move to the state, and our elected officers within the Common Meeting, together with Gov. Jared Polis, might be in an excellent place to show Colorado’s clear vitality transition into an financial growth for your entire state.
The Inflation Reduction Act and final yr’s bipartisan infrastructure law are designed to cut back vitality prices for households and companies. Electrical energy prices have lots to do with the place we get our vitality from, and extra native clear vitality means Coloradans might be shielded from the worth volatility related to fossil fuels.
State lawmakers and Gov. Polis might be tasked with ensuring as many properties, colleges, and companies as attainable use the cash within the Inflation Discount Act to undertake clear and vitality environment friendly applied sciences that hold vitality prices low. The demand created by way of these {dollars} will make it simpler for builders and utilities to launch new clear vitality tasks in Colorado. In the meantime, our elected officers can make certain the state’s energy suppliers are making the most of the ten years of tax-credit certainty for brand new photo voltaic and wind tasks, which is able to permit for much more regular progress of low-cost renewable vitality.
Lawmakers within the Common Meeting have already demonstrated the flexibility to seek out frequent floor on the state’s vitality points.
Two years in the past, Colorado handed bipartisan legislation designed to strengthen vitality affordability and reliability. The state has set the wheels in movement with the Colorado Electric Transmission Authority to construct out new and up to date transmission infrastructure that may operate as a renewable vitality freeway. And by modernizing native vitality infrastructure and dealing with different states throughout the West to raised join our electrical energy system, our state is on a promising path.
Higher coordination with neighboring states won’t solely be key for delivering low-cost, dependable energy when and the place it’s wanted most, but in addition give Colorado the flexibility to promote and export extra vitality, including a brand new income supply to our economic system and maintaining the lights on at a decrease price throughout excessive climate.
This latest state regulation additionally opens the door for brand new and improved financial alternatives in rural communities. Connecting clear vitality from hard-to-reach locations with energy facilities that may ship it throughout the state will translate into native jobs as we construct out the transmission traces wanted to hyperlink the 2.
These jobs will present paychecks to employees and households as a part of Colorado’s bigger clear jobs development. As of 2021, the superior vitality trade accounted for 66,000 jobs within the state. No matter what aspect of the aisle they’re on, lawmakers ought to discover it straightforward to provoke round creating much more jobs. Within the coming yr, Colorado leaders can quicken the buildout of recent renewable vitality tasks and much-needed transmission infrastructure to spur new jobs and safe protected, dependable energy for all.
What’s extra, the Inflation Discount Act and bipartisan infrastructure regulation will spur extra funding in making our communities and our energy grid extra resilient to wildfires, extreme climate, and different emergencies. New funding for clear back-up energy sources like microgrids, vitality storage know-how, and even stored-up clear energy in electrical faculty bus batteries may help hold the ability on for households and significant providers throughout any scenario.
We are able to already see how this can work. Xcel Vitality, which covers thousands and thousands of vitality clients throughout Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and the Midwest estimates the Inflation Discount Act will assist minimize the worth tag of a brand new Minnesota photo voltaic undertaking by about 20 percent and supply native jobs to a neighborhood with a closing coal plant. There’s no cause Colorado can’t profit in comparable methods.
At the moment, Coloradans are going through rising vitality prices as a result of worth of pure gasoline, which is especially excessive now however all the time risky. However with bipartisan cooperation, forward-thinking vitality insurance policies, and the incoming federal investments to assist help them, our lawmakers can decrease prices and ensure all Coloradans can faucet into the advantages of a clear vitality economic system.
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