Editor: For too long, Xcel Energy’s Comanche 3 coal plant in Pueblo has been spewing toxic chemicals into the air, damaging residents’ health in the name of providing electricity for Aurora and the majority of the state.
The plant is located in a low-income, Latinx neighborhood, adding to Xcel’s legacy of environmental racism. Now the Public Utilities Commission is reviewing Xcel’s plan for the future of the Comanche plant, including a proposed settlement that would allow the monopoly utility to operate the plant until 2035, which would be five years longer than any other utility in Colorado plans to burn coal. Approving the settlement would be a huge and costly mistake.
No coal plant should be allowed to operate beyond 2030 at the very latest, but especially not this one. Comanche 3 is Xcel’s least reliable power plant in the state, with a history of costly operational issues and shutdowns, including one that kept the plant offline for almost all of 2020. We simply do not need this plant.
On top of that, the settlement would allow Xcel to recover the remaining cost to build Comanche 3 through rates, leaving Aurora ratepayers like me on the hook for their bad investment. The Public Utilities Commission has the opportunity to require Xcel to accelerate the closing of this dirty, costly plant and help us build a cleaner future without new gas, coal, or even nuclear energy. It’s time to look to the future and harness the abundant wind and sun in our state.
— Sarah Maraschky via letters@sentinelcolorado.com
Seems like this article has an abundance of Wind. Once we have an alternative source of power that is cheaper then let’s start taking down older but still functional plants. Until then let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. Also why does everything have to be “racist”.
I want to take exception to the comment “The plant is located in a low-income, Latinx neighborhood, adding to Xcel’s legacy of environmental racism.”. Xcel’s Comanche plant is located outside of the city and employs over 100 people. Those employees mostly locals from the surrounding Pueblo area have good jobs that pay better than the local average.
Xcel Energy is probably the least racist employer in the entire Arkansas valley employing anyone who is willing and able to work. Shame on you for this comment.