Colorado and Xcel’s Comanche 2 Petition Throws Impacted Pueblo Community Under the Bus

The state of Colorado and Xcel Energy today filed a request with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to keep Unit 2 at the Comanche coal plant in Pueblo operating beyond its December retirement deadline. If the petition is granted, it could raise Colorado residents’ utility bills and worsen air pollution for surrounding communities. The filing comes as the Trump administration is reportedly considering illegal emergency orders under the Federal Power Act 202(c) to keep retiring coal plants open, including in Colorado. If the PUC allows Comanche 2 to operate past its retirement deadline, it must include operational limits and guardrails that would reduce harm to community members and ratepayers.

Today’s filing follows a PUC decision issued last Thursday on Phase I of Xcel’s Just Transition Solicitation. That case involves the regulatory process through which Xcel proposes how it will replace coal plants with new resources while addressing the social, economic, and environmental harms on impacted communities. The PUC decision failed to acknowledge many concerns raised by the Environmental Justice Coalition, consisting of Vote Solar, Roots to Resilience, GreenLatinos, GRID Alternatives, and NAACP State Conference CO-MY-WY, Pueblo Branch, regarding equity and health impacts in Pueblo and other communities.

The Environmental Justice Coalition strongly supports retiring the Comanche coal plant as planned and as quickly as possible, and replacing the generation with clean, renewable resources, including a renewable energy park in Pueblo, but the PUC declined to order Xcel to begin studying this idea. The PUC also failed to prevent Xcel from accepting and favoring gas plant bids in Pueblo during Phase II of the case. The commission also approved Xcel’s proposal to extend the life of one of the units at the Cherokee gas plant in North Denver by a year, over the Environmental Justice Coalition’s objections.

“The health and wellbeing of Pueblo residents are once again being disregarded by Xcel and the state,” said Jamie Valdez, Colorado Transportation and Energy Advocate with GreenLatinos. “Keeping polluting coal plants online without strong commitments to community protections and operational limits will pile on to the burdens my community experiences, like dirty air and expensive energy bills. We need administrative actions that truly center environmental justice and a just transition.”

“Keeping outdated coal plants on life support doesn’t make Colorado’s grid more reliable; it just burdens families and businesses with higher bills while utilities rake in profits,” said Claudine Custodio, Vote Solar’s Regulatory Director for the Interior West. “Instead of wasting money on yesterday’s technology, we should be investing in clean energy solutions, like solar and storage, that keep energy both reliable and affordable for all communities across Colorado.”

“After the PUC failed to address the needs of community members in the first phase of the just transition proceeding, we are now faced with a request to keep Comanche 2 open beyond its retirement deadline,” said Portia Prescott, regional president of the Rocky Mountain NAACP CO-WY-MT. “It is unacceptable to prolong the impacts of fossil fuel plants while refusing to allow community members to chart the course for what comes next. It is time to turn the page on coal and invest in renewable resources that will allow communities like Pueblo to prosper.”

“What we need right now more than ever is commitment to real, clean energy solutions that will yield a truly just transition, lower energy bills, and good jobs,” said Daniel Pontón Aronoff, Interior West Policy Manager for GRID Alternatives. “The petition to keep Comanche 2 open is yet another mistake in looking to dirty, expensive technology for a solution instead of clean energy. We are hopeful that the PUC will commit to protecting the community from false solutions by exclusively approving clean energy resources in phase 2 of the JTS.”

“The state of Colorado, the PUC, and Xcel Energy have an obligation to retire Comanche 2 at the end of this year, and they should move forward with this long-planned retirement,” said Michael Hiatt, deputy managing attorney with Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain Office. “Continuing to operate heavily polluting and expensive coal units past their retirement deadlines is unwise and not necessary. The PUC also cannot let this petition distract it from its job of ensuring a truly just transition for the Pueblo community when this coal plant retires.”