News & Press Releases
Press Release: New Report Details Environmental, Consumer Costs of Data Center Expansion
1/23/2025 – Growth in energy-intensive computing must come with focus on using renewable energy, maximizing energy efficiency, reducing impacts on grid. READ MORE
Colorado PUC approves Black Hills Clean Heat Plan, Mandates Statewide Beneficial Electrification
1/22/2025 – READ MORE
“This landmark decision highlights the power of household electrification to deliver cost-effective solutions for consumers while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” - Rebecca Curry, Senior Manager of Western Regional Policy at Rewiring America.
Can Colorado’s Electric Grid Keep Up as Coal Plants Close and Data Centers Open?
1/12/2025 – Expanded transmission systems, energy efficiency among strategies employed statewide. READ MORE
“In some states, utilities are building enormous new gas plants to serve data centers. To meet Colorado’s climate goals, we cannot have a massive buildout of new fossil fuels to serve data centers.” - Garrett Royer, acting chapter director of the Colorado Sierra Club.
Once Xcel’s last coal plant in Colorado closes, is nuclear energy an option to replace its jobs, electricity?
11/25/2024 – Pueblo community differs on whether renewables, nuclear power is best path forward. READ MORE
“Not only are renewables proving they can power our future, but they’re proving they can provide the jobs and economic stability that Pueblo has needed for so long.” - Jamie Valdez, Community Organizer.
What is the Best Replacement for Xcel’s Comanche Coal-Fired Power Plant in Pueblo?
10/14/2024 – The Xcel coal-fired power plant in Pueblo will be closing in 2031. The best replacement is renewable energy like wind, solar and geothermal with battery and storage to maximize it and energy efficiency to cut waste. READ MORE
Denver Post: Gas Bills Will Rise After Xcel Energy Wins OK of $130M Hike in Revenue
11/14/2024 –Regulators rejected utility’s initial request of $170M; residential bills will rise average of $4.57 per month. READ MORE
Ratepayers First: The Economic Case Against Nuclear’s Data Center Dreams
11/14/2024 – READ MORE
“Ratepayers matter, and it’s time that everyone focuses on what’s best for them. And what’s best for them are affordable electricity bills and rapid decarbonization of the electric grid that does not include paying for expensive nuclear energy to serve data centers.” - Patty Durand, founder and president of Cool Planet Solutions.
Press Release – Colorado Groups: State Legislature Captured by Nuclear Power Interestes
02/14/2025 – Late last night, the Colorado General Assembly’s Committee on Energy & Environment rubber stamped House Bill 25-1040 (Adding Nuclear Energy as a Clean Energy Resource), despite recommendations and testimony from experts and local groups. READ MORE
DeepSeek’s Emergence Shows the Power Sector’s AI Dreams May Not Proceed as Expected
01/30/2025 – The power sector’s data center mania just got a dose of reality. Instead of looking forward to huge increases in electricity demand from data centers that power artificial intelligence tools, companies are facing the possibility that this growth may be smaller and less predictable than previously thought.. READ MORE
Colorado needs good data center policy. This is not it.
02/24/2025 – Bill at Capitol proposes more carrots. Instead, we need policy that makes data center developers give us what we need. Developers of data centers in Colorado already have a 10-year red carpet in the form of reduced costs of electricity paid to investor-owned utilities. HB25-1177, a bill being heard on Wednesday afternoon at the Colorado Capitol proposes to lengthen those incentives to 25 years. READ MORE
Colorado and Connecticut lowered utility bills by reining in lobbying
02/13/2025 – People across the U.S. receiving rising utility bills aren’t just paying for the costs of gas and electricity: They could also be paying for corporate lobbying and advertising. … In some states, that’s starting to change. . READ MORE
Environmental groups oppose pro-nuclear state legislation
02/24/2025 – Colorado legislators have introduced House Bill 25-1040, which seeks to classify nuclear power as a clean energy resource even though it requires the extraction and processing of uranium and produces waste that remains dangerously radioactive for tens of thousands of years. READ MORE
Power Cut
03/03/2025 – Microsoft is effectively cutting its data center expansion by over a gigawatt of capacity, if not more, and it’s impossible to reconcile these cuts with the expectation that generative AI will be a massive, transformative technological phenomenon. I believe the reason Microsoft is cutting back is that it does not have the appetite to provide further data center expansion for OpenAI, and it’s having doubts about the future of generative AI as a whole. READ MORE
Nuclear power will be the radioactive cousin of the fossil fuel industry
03/24/2025 – Corporate thirst for nuclear energy is growing to dangerous levels, and Colorado will take its first steps into that fire by passing the pro-nuclear bill, House Bill 25-1040, unless Gov. Jared Polis vetoes it.. READ MORE
Nuclear Power: Not clean, not safe
03/23/2025 – As a physician, I strongly recommend that Governor Polis veto the recently passed legislation, HB25-1040, which gives nuclear power "clean energy resource" status in Colorado law. It’s well documented that high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants is hazardous to human health, that there are over 90,000 metric tons in the U.S., and that there is no permanent place to store it. The radioactivity lasts for thousands of years. READ MORE
Groups urge Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to veto bill that would define nuclear energy as ‘clean’
03/24/2025 – A coalition of environmental groups is asking Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to veto a bill approved by the state legislature that would classify nuclear power as a clean energy source. READ MORE
Pueblo’s Comanche Generating Station could be replaced by a Renewable Energy Park
04/2172025 – Pueblo community members and activists are hoping to replace the Comanche Generating Station, set to close by 2031, with a Renewable Energy Park. Proponents of the Renewable Energy Park promise clean, reliable energy from wind, solar, and battery storage. READ MORE