Energy secretary warns that Colorado’s polices will increase costs

By EPN Staff

Colorado’s energy policies are threatening the state’s economy, cautioned U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

The secretary was on a tour of northern Colorado energy infrastructure sites when he issued the dire warning. During a news conference with local congressman Gabe Evans (R-CO-8) at the St. Vrain natural gas-fired power plant in Platteville, Colo., Wright said that the state is at risk of even higher energy prices and lost business if the state continues down its current regulatory path.

Why it matters

Colorado has among the highest electricity rates in the nation, with only a handful of states outside the northeast — including California and Hawaii — reporting higher prices. Wright said that Colorado’s energy policies, which have included statutorily mandated zero greenhouse gas emissions targets and copious oil and gas restrictions, have contributed to higher energy prices. A decision by the state’s Public Utilities Commission in December to order utilities to achieve a further 41% reduction in their carbon output by 2035, predominantly through switching home heating from natural gas to electric, is expected to increase rates even more. 

Wright said Colorado’s policies were not only increasing electrical costs for consumers but could discourage businesses such as data centers from relocating to the state. 

“If we’re going to lead in artificial intelligence, we have to lead in electricity production,” Wright said. “In the last 20 years, we’ve tripled our oil production, doubled our natural gas production and barely grown our electricity production, because electricity is the part that’s been infected with politics, with over-regulation, with bureaucracy.”

The bigger picture

Wright also addressed the issue of higher oil prices resulting from the war in Iran, saying that the administration was exploring every option, including potential releases from the strategic petroleum reserve. But he noted that successful completion of American strategic aims in the conflict was critical, saying that “the single biggest thing we can do is completely dismantle Iran’s ability to project hostile force against its neighbors in the Middle Eastern energy system.”

The global oil market disruptions from Iran’s lingering control of the Strait of Hormuz are impacting the cost of crude on the world market, and while gasoline and diesel prices in the U.S. are up, their impact in the U.S. is not as high as in other parts of the world. 

Evans and Wright both suggested that Colorado could be doing more to lower fuel prices in the state. 

The issue in Colorado, Evans said, is that “the state of Colorado has declared war on oil, gas and coal.”

 "So, the biggest barrier to bringing prices down and actually being able to generate affordable, available, reliable electricity and other forms of power is all of the different mandates that is coming from the state of Colorado,” he said.

Wright added that “Colorado has been choking oil and gas, which pushes up prices locally.”

Wright said that he and Evans shared the same goal in terms of energy policy. 

"It is a pretty simple agenda,” Wright said. “It is to lower the cost of energy and raise wages."