Municipal utilities and electric cooperatives would have more time to cut their carbon emissions under legislation advanced by Colorado Springs-area lawmakers, who say the local electric utility will struggle to meet the 80% reduction target by the 2030 deadline.
The bipartisan bill announced Monday during a call with reporters would allow the public to submit plans to the state with a new target date that’s no later than 2040. If the bill passes, the city-owned Colorado Springs Utilities could extend the retirement date for the coal-burning Ray D. Dixon Power Plant beyond the end of 2029 as currently planned.
CEO TravasDeal said the utility has made significant progress toward a sustainable, clean energy plan with closure of the Martin Drake coal plant in 2022 and the addition of a 175-megawatt solar array in 2023 and a 100-megawatt storage project in 2025.
“However, achieving Colorado’s deadline of 80% greenhouse gas reductions by 2030 has become increasingly challenging without adjustments. We risk reliability and affordability for homes, businesses, hospitals, and military installations,” Deal said.
And Colorado Springs Utilities can’t meet the 2029 deadline for closing the Ray D. Nixon plan, he said.
The bill is expected to be introduced this week during the start of the 2026 session of the Colorado General Assembly.
Environmental organizations criticized the proposal, saying that Colorado Springs Utilities is the state’s only major utility seeking exemption from its commitment to Colorado’s goals for addressing climate change and pollution. Every other major utility is on track to cutting carbon dioxide emissions 80% by 2030 and Colorado Springs hasn’t explained why it can’t, Margaret Kran-Annexstein,director of the Colorado Chapter of the Sierra Club, said in a statement.
“After years of failing to plan for replacement resources, Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) wants to break its promise and remain one of Colorado’s largest polluters,” Paul Sherman, Conservation Colorado’s climate campaign manager said in a statement. “Coloradans want cleaner air, lower energy bills and stronger enforcement against big polluters – not a free pass for utilities.”
As part of state law on a climate action plan, certain utilities are required to chart a course to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at least 80% from 2005 levels by 2030. Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest electric utility, has filed plans with state regulators that call for it to close its last coal plant, the Comanche Generating Station near Pueblo, by 2030 and replace the power with renewable energy, natural gas and storage.
However, Xcel’s progress in phasing out coal hit a road bump in 2025 when the largest unit at Comanche malfunctioned and had to be shut down. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission approved keeping open another unit that was scheduled to close last year while Comanche 3 is repaired.
At the same time, the Trump administration has taken aim at incentives for renewable energy and ordered work to stop on off-shore wind projects while championing oil and gas and pushing to keep coal plants burning. The administration issued an order Dec. 30 that a coal-fired plant in Craig stay open for at least 90 days even though it was scheduled to close at the end of the year and it’s broken.
Federal officials have issued emergency directives to keep coal plants in Michigan and Pennsylvania operating despite plans to retire them.
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency dealt Colorado’s efforts to phase out coal another blow when the agency’s regional director, Cyrus Western, said the state can’t order coal plants to close as a way to reduce haze obstructing views at Rocky Mountain National Park and other federal lands. He cited Colorado Springs Utilities’ push to exclude the Ray D. Nixon Power Plant in Fountain from the state’s closure plans.
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Democratic Rep. Amy Paschal of Colorado Springs said she is an environmentalist and is concerned about the region’s air pollution.
“Some will ask, because of all of this, why are you joining on this bill? I’m joining on this bill because it aims to strike the delicate balance between affordability, reliability and clean energy in Colorado Springs,” Paschal said. “As I think we’re all aware, utility costs are eating away at the budgets of hard-working families.”
Colorado Springs Utilities has more customers on payment assistance programs than ever before, she added.
“Protecting the environment and protecting families should not be mutually exclusive. We can pursue cleaner energy while also allowing reasonable timelines to safeguard affordability and ensure reliability,” said House Minority Leader Jarvis Caldwell, a Republican from Colorado Springs.
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