Colorado renewable energy bill gets call for veto from GOP lawmakers

About a dozen Republican legislators met on the steps of the state Capitol on Thursday to call for a veto on the rural renewable energy bill, arguing that it, along with gun-control bills passed earlier this year, are an attack on rural Colorado. Senate Bill 252, which passed May 1, requires the state's rural-based nonprofit energy cooperatives to increase the amount of renewable energy offered to 20 percent by 2020. It's a requirement that, according to opponents, places an unfair burden on the state's rural communities, which get much of their power from cheaper coal. "We have ranchers and farmers all across the state who right now are also nonprofit, and they've been nonprofit for the last five years," said Sen. Steve King, R-Grand Junction. "They are just barely hanging on." Gov. John Hickenlooper told The Denver Post on Thursday that he was still reviewing the legislation and speaking with lawmakers on both sides, as well as with executives from the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association energy cooperative. The governor said the new legislative requirements would, if applied in Colorado, put the state in the middle of the range of renewable energy consumption compared to rural cooperatives from surrounding states. The governor has until June 7 to either sign the bill, veto it or do nothing, in which case it will become law. A contested aspect of the bill is a 2 percent limit on billing increases for affected consumers. Proponents say the fee cap ensures that consumers won't be hit with increases they can't afford, but opponents say the cap forces energy companies to simply shift the cost elsewhere. "They try to build caps in, but you cannot cap the cost of compliance," said Sean Paige, deputy state director for Americans for Prosperity Colorado, the news conference's organizer. "Costs are real, and the costs are paid by somebody," he said. "To say we're going to cap the costs just forces utility providers into dishonest bookkeeping." Senate President John Morse, who sponsored the bill, said the cap instead protects the cooperatives from being forced to comply with the bill if the costs are prohibitive. "The bill says very explicitly and clearly you don't have to spend that extra dollar to get that extra percent (increase)," Morse said. "Read the bill, look at what it says and does, and these arguments will fall on their face," he said. Read more: Colorado renewable energy bill gets call for veto from GOP lawmakers - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_23209615/colorado-renewable-energy-bill-gets-call-veto-from#ixzz2U5FEpRwY Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse Follow us: @Denverpost on Twitter | Denverpost on Facebook