In 2019, Western Colorado Alliance members passed state legislation that, for the first time ever, required Tri-State Generation & Transmission to answer to the people of Colorado. Tri-State is rural Colorado’s major energy supplier and has long held the ignoble distinction of being one of the costliest and dirtiest suppliers in the nation.
This Tuesday, all the past hard work of Alliance members came home with Tri-State’s filing of its Electric Resource Plan with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. This plan envisions a sweeping transformation of Tri-State’s electricity supply and large job-creating new investments in clean energy generation on the Western Slope over the next decade. Though the unredacted portions of the plan raise serious questions about future coal and gas use for future Western Colorado Alliance organizing, it’s worth taking this moment to celebrate positive steps in the plan that would have been unimaginable just a few short years ago.
WCA staff will continue analyzing this complex proposal over the coming days, but the following questions are known to us now:
With this Phase I of the Electric Resource Plan filed, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission will soon open up a public comment period for ideas from the public. Stay tuned with our Alliance for news and resources on how you — and your community — can have its say and shape the future of Colorado energy.