Pueblo County is asking the Trump administration to issue an emergency order to keep Xcel Energy’s troubled, coal-fired Comanche power station open indefinitely.
Comanche’s Unit 1 was closed in 2022. Unit 2 is set to close this year and Unit 3 by 2031. By that time all of Colorado’s six remaining coal-fired plants are scheduled to be closed to meet state emissions standards.
But Pueblo County, in a filing to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, said it will seek relief from President Donald Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
“Pueblo is in the process of requesting that President Trump and Secretary Wright order that Comanche 2 remain in operation beyond its closure date …” the county said, “and that he orders that Comanche 3 and 2 remain open until replacement generation is constructed in Pueblo.”
In May, the Trump administration issued emergency orders to keep two, 60-year-old fossil fuel power plants open — the Eddystone oil- and gas-fired power plant, near Philadelphia, and the J.H. Campbell coal-fired plant in West Olive, Michigan.
In both cases, the DOE said it was concerned that there wasn’t adequate generation to meet demand. In April, President Trump also signed an executive order to reinvigorate “America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry.”
The move by Pueblo County to extend the life of the coal-fired power station, which is the county’s largest taxpayer, is part of an ongoing battle over what is adequate compensation to the community for the loss of taxes and high-paying jobs.
In 2019, the legislature passed a law to ensure a “just transition” from a coal-based economy for communities losing mines and coal-fired power plants.
Xcel Energy, in its “Just Transition Solicitation” plan, included in lieu of tax payments, development credits and a commitment to avoid layoffs and try to locate new facilities in Pueblo County. The PUC approved the plan in August.
Pueblo officials, however, say that the plan is inadequate. A citizen’s advisory committee, supported by Xcel Energy, concluded in a January 2024 report that only a capital-intensive project like a small nuclear reactor could “make Pueblo whole.”
The shutdown of the first two Comanche units will lead to a 21% drop in tax payments to the county and when Comanche 3 is shuttered, tax payments will drop another 69% to $7.1 million.
Xcel Energy will pay $15.9 million annually in lieu of lost taxes through 2040, but in its filing the county said that sum was a “pittance” of the plant’s $200 million in annual direct and indirect economic benefits.
At a minimum the county wanted a new gas-fired turbine located at the Comanche plant site, but neither a reactor nor a gas-fired plant are part of the plan.
“Our goal was to make Pueblo whole from the economic disaster it is facing with the early closure of Comanche 3,” Jeffrey Shaw, president of the Pueblo Economic Development Corp., said in a PUC filing.
“At some point just transition has to be ‘just’ for the Pueblo community. To date it has been anything but just,” Shaw said.
Is the PUC retaliating because Pueblo County voted to elect Donald Trump?
During the PUC review of Xcel Energy’s plan neither the commission nor the company showed much enthusiasm for the county’s arguments.
“Perhaps this commission is biased against Pueblo because it voted for President Trump twice,” the county said in its filing. “Perhaps this commission has decided that it will not even consider innovative technologies, such as advanced nuclear, for coal communities. Perhaps the commission has decided that only the voices of the environmental organizations will be considered.”
Failing to even consider a gas plant or a nuclear plant and increasing incentives, means there will be no just transition, according to the county.
“If Pueblo cannot obtain a Just Transition from the participants in this proceeding and the state of Colorado, perhaps President Trump and Secretary Wright can assist Pueblo,” the filing said.
The Trump administration is using a section of the Federal Power Act that gives the Secretary of Energy the ability to issue temporary orders “during the continuance of a war in which the United States is engaged or when an emergency exists by reason of a sudden increase in the demand for electric energy, or a shortage of electric energy.”
Six environmental groups have filed a legal challenge to the Eddystone order and utility commissions in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin have challenged the J.H. Campbell order.
Pueblo County noted that Xcel Energy in its proposal to acquire 4,500 megawatts cited concerns of adequate power supplies in the near-term and wanted some of the resources to be so-called baseload, which can run round-the-clock.
The 750 MW Comanche 3 unit, however, has been plagued by breakdowns and shutdowns in its 15-year history that have made it the most expensive electricity on the Xcel Energy system, according to a PUC investigation.
The plant was shut down again in late July, during a heat wave, necessitating Xcel Energy issuing an order to customers to conserve electricity. The PUC is investigating the incident.
“What an utterly myopic thing to do — asking Washington to bail out a broken, uneconomical coal plant,” said Eric Frankowski, executive director of the non-profit Western Clean Energy Campaign.
Costs to replace coal-generated power are rising
The Ray Nixon Power Plant is operated by Colorado Springs Utilities. The coal-burning plant is targeted to be closed by 2030. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)The closing of coal-fired power plants is part of Colorado’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Road Map, created in 2021, which requires the utility sector to cut carbon emissions 80% by 2030.
However, faced with rising costs for replacement wind and solar, Colorado Springs Utilities is considering seeking a waiver from the state to keep open its Ray Nixon 1 coal-fired power plant south of the city that is scheduled to close in 2029.
In July, the federal Environmental Protection Agency in reviewing the state’s regional haze plans said that Colorado can’t set deadlines for power plant closures, a position the state rejected.
In April, when President Trump issued his clean coal executive order, Gov. Jared Polis called it federal “overreach.”
“We are committed to delivering less expensive, reliable electricity and protecting Colorado’s air, water and cherished landscapes, and supercharging our energy mix to meet our 100% clean energy goal,” the governor said in a statement.
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