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Important Voting Dates:
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| BP Amoco: April 19, 2001 |
| Chevron: April 25, 2001 |
| Coca Cola: April 18, 2001 |
| ExxonMobil: May 30, 2001 |
| Xcel Energy: April 25, 2001 |
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For more information contact:
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| Michael Passoff |
| As You Sow Foundation |
| San Francisco, CA 94104 |
| Phone: (415) 291-9867 |
| Email: |
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Colorado Commission Forces Xcel Energy to Add Wind-Power
Farm to Its Plans
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| By Michael Booth |
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| February 24, 2001 -- The next generation
of power plants to supply Colorado's surging demand will
include a major new wind farm in Lamar, after a state
utility commission on Friday forced Xcel Energy to include
the alternative energy source in its plans. |
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The move means a 162-megawatt wind farm to be
built by Texas energy giant Enron could come on line as early
as next year and become part of Colorado's standard energy grid,
paid for by all homeowners. Xcel currently runs a smaller wind
farm northeast of Fort Collins but treats it as a special environmental
promotion funded by volunteers who pay extra for the power.
A megawatt supplies the ongoing demands of about 1,000 average
homes.
'We're delighted,' said Ron Larson, an energy consultant and
member of an alternative-energy coalition that lobbied the Public
Utilities Commission to overrule Xcel and mandate the wind farm
in a list of power plants to come on line in the next few years.
Xcel opposed including the wind farm in its plans because it
claims wind power will be more expensive than natural gas-generated
electricity in coming years. The company also said wind power
is unreliable and that it would have to build backup sources
for when winds die down.
Xcel spokesman Steve Roalstad said Friday the company will negotiate
in good faith with Enron to complete the wind plant but that
Xcel still worries wind will prove expensive for its customers.
'Only time will tell how those figures actually come out,' he
said. The victory for environmental groups and the growing number
of profit-seeking advocates for wind power goes beyond the 3
percent boost that the Lamar wind farm may eventually add to
Xcel's new power sources.
It reflects a national trend toward treating alternative energy
sources as equally muscular competitors in the economic arena,
rather than as weak options that need special favor. Scientists
and major manufacturers - including the automakers - are moving
quickly to develop cheaper, high-performance energy options
such as hybrid-fuel cars and fuel cells that power engines with
hydrogen.
'It shows that wind is cost-effective. And it will open the
door for other renewable-energy projects,' said Rudd Mayer of
Boulder's Land and Water Fund. Enron's backers have also said
building the hundred-plus wind towers, at $ 750,000 each, will
be an economic boon for the Eastern Plains.
While the great majority of Colorado's electrical power is currently
generated by burning coal, the list of new plants Xcel wanted
approved Friday included five plants fired by cleaner natural
gas. They will be built in Arvada and in Weld, Morgan, El Paso
and Arapahoe counties, totaling 1,270 megawatts.
Xcel had declined to negotiate a contract for Enron's wind proposal,
but the PUC has the power to change the future building plan.
Those pushing the wind option gained traction with the sharp
rise in gas prices this winter, which they claimed threw doubt
on Xcel's predictions that natural gas would be cheap and stable
when its new plants start generating. At the same time, California's
ongoing energy shortage pointed out that adding even a percentage
or two of power to a state's system can be the difference between
blackouts and business-as-usual.
Enron and other wind advocates said Xcel was lowballing future
natural gas prices and overestimating the need for wind backup
systems when it rejected the Lamar farm. The PUC's staff supported
the wind bid, saying Xcel was putting penalties on wind that
no other government agency had agreed to, and that Xcel's parent
company had treated wind projects in other states more favorably.
The PUC staff said it agreed with the lower range of the estimates
on what wind electricity will truly cost.
In voting for the wind bid, PUC commissioners said the costs
and reliability of wind in a larger electrical grid are a 'stab
in the dark.' But the vote will push Xcel and other energy companies
to look closely and fairly at alternative sources for power,
said Commissioner Robert Hix.
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