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CRES Files Objection to PUC Rules on Amendment 37
March 28, 2006
The Colorado Renewable Energy Society (CRES) has filed
a brief with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC)
objecting to its rules for implementing Amendment 37. Passed by
voters in November 2004 by a margin of 54% to 46%, Amendment 37
requires the PUC to administer a minimum requirement for the state’s
investor owned utilities to obtain 10% of their electricity from
renewable energy by 2015.
CRES attorney Ron Lehr said that rather than implement the statute,
the PUC has spent the last year rewriting it in order to minimize
installations of renewable energy. Lehr and a group of renewable
energy experts called “Core-37” have spent more than a year
negotiating with Xcel Energy and the PUC. The PUC is scheduled to
release its rules on Friday. Lehr said, “These rules run contrary to
the statute as written and confound the intention of the voters to
increase use of renewable energy in the state.” You can read Lehr’s
explanation in the March 27 edition of the Colorado Renewable Energy
Blog on the CRES website at:
http://cres-energy.org/newhtml/news_blog.html
Lehr, CRES Board member Morey Wolfson (also representing the
Colorado Energy Science Center), CRES member and Director of the
Colorado Coalition for New Energy Technologies Craig Cox, and others
testified about these rules before the House Select Committee on
Strategic Renewable Energy at the Colorado Legislature last
Wednesday. Cox said, “Amendment 37 offers Colorado a singular
opportunity to jump-start markets for renewable energy.” Lehr says
he believes that there will be a court case over the PUC rules and
further action by the legislature. Read Lehr’s brief filed at the
PUC on behalf of CRES at:
http://www.cres-energy.org/documents/A37rulesRRRdraft.pdf |
