Coal is loaded off of trains and piled beside Xcel Energy’s Comanche Generating Station near Pueblo. Colorado’s largest remaining coal plant, and the last to be scheduled to retired in 2031, is now surrounded by solar projects. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
Chris Wright, the nominee of president-elect Donald Trump to oversee the U.S. Department of Energy, founded Liberty Energy, a company headquartered on the 24th floor of a downtown Denver building. The company deploys hydraulic fracturing and other technological innovations that have produced a bounty of hydrocarbons in Colorado and other places on the planet.
Wright is a hydrocarbon evangelist. He says only fossil fuels can lift people out of poverty. He acknowledges human-induced climate change but downplays the potential costs. Renewable generation will take a century or two to displace fossil fuels. “We should push ahead, but if you push ahead at all costs, you end up harming people’s lives,” he said in Greeley in 2021.
In Colorado, the energy transition is well underway. Consider Holy Cross Energy, the electrical cooperative serving the Aspen and Vail areas. During October, Holy Cross managed to achieve more than 90% electrical generation from its wind, solar and other renewable resources. Bryan Hannegan, the chief executive, believes Holy Cross can achieve between 95% and 100% emissions-free electricity by 2030.
The cost? Surveys of Colorado’s 50-plus electrical utilities consistently show Holy Cross having among the state’s lowest rates.
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Colorado legislators in 2019 adopted goals for economy-wide decarbonization, the first big milestone being 50% by 2030. That’s a difficult goal, and we’re currently lagging the pace we need. Will a Trump White House and a Republican Congress further slow Colorado’s journey?
No, because Colorado has such strong momentum, is what I hear. Beginning with a big bill-signing festival amid solar panels in Arvada during May 2019, Gov. Jared Polis has signed scores of bills into law. Those laws collectively push and pull Colorado toward low- and no-emissions technologies.
This big pivot has been made easier by rapid price declines in wind and solar energy during the last 15 years. Keep in mind that Trump, when campaigning in Grand Junction in 2016, had promised to put coal miners back to work. Guess what? During his time in the White House, Colorado utilities made plans to close all their coal plants. They’re too costly.
I posed the question of a Trump presidency and Republican Congress to Jigar Shaw in October 2023. He oversees the Department of Energy loan program.
“Four major technologies have thrived to the point where they’re super cost-effective today: solar, wind, lithium-ion battery storage, and electric vehicles,” he replied. “All four were unscathed but (actually) thrived under the Trump administration.”
The Inflation Reduction Act, the deceptively named climate change law passed by Congress in 2022, has funneled great sums to both rural and urban Colorado. (Holy Cross Energy is getting none.)
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, the electrical provider for 17 of Colorado’s 22 electrical cooperatives, is to get $2.5 billion in grants and loans to help it replace coal plants with renewables and natural gas. The Denver Regional Council of Governments got $200 million to help reduce natural gas consumption in buildings. A representative assured me that the money is secure.
Can the Trump administration redirect money to other purposes, such as for erecting a wall in Arizona? Likely not in any significant way. After all, well more than half of the IRA money has gone to the nation’s congressional districts represented by Republicans.
The greatest near-term threat may be to the $7,500 federal tax credit for purchase of electric vehicles. Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, dislikes subsidies. According to the New York Times, he told shareholders in July that shedding the tax credit will hurt competing auto manufactures more. Losing that tax credit could slow Colorado’s embrace of EVs. EVs and plug-in hybrids were responsible for about 28% of all new-car sales in the third quarter of 2024.
Renewables still have challenges. Because of their intermittency, we need more storage. And just as we once built costly interstate highways, we will build costly transmission lines for more energy sharing across broad areas. We have a long way to go in this marathon.
Wright, Trump’s energy nominee, discounts the immediate threat of global warming. Colorado River flows that have declined 20% attest to a big problem today. Part of it is natural drought, but a new study shows that warming temperatures have been swinging the heavier bat in this aridification. Grand Junction can attest to this. Temperatures last summer averaged over 80 degrees, a record.
To be clear, it would be far better if the Trump administration wanted to accelerate the pace of the energy transition. But will Trump’s triumph stall Colorado’s progress? Not much.
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