Colorado is further along in cutting power-plant carbon dioxide emissions than some states — the question is how far along and what would be the impact of proposed federal rules.
Those issues will be at the core of a two-day hearing held by the federal Environmental Protection Agency in Denver starting Tuesday.
The proposed EPA rule seeks to cut emissions of carbon dioxide — the largest man-made greenhouse gas by volume — by 30 percent nationwide by 2030.
The EPA is proposing the rules under the Clean Air Act to blunt the gas, which scientific studies show traps extra heat in the atmosphere.
Other power plant pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide and mercury, also are regulated under the act. The EPA proposal sets targets for each state based on the local power supply and existing energy policies and calls for each state to develop its own reduction plan. Colorado has a 35 percent target.
“We are not done yet, but all the polices in place make it doable for Colorado,” said Stacey Tellinghuisen, an analyst with the Boulder-based environmental policy group Western Resource Advocates.
An analysis by Western Resources Advocates estimates that with just Colorado’s existing programs the state’s carbon emissions will be cut 28 percent by 2030.
Some industry and utility executives are wary of the proposed rules impacts.
“The EPA is placing state regulators in a difficult position to craft complex plans in a short period of time,” said Lee Boughey, a spokesman for Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc., Colorado’s second-largest electricity provider.
The regulations focus on coal-fired power plants, the nation’s single largest source of carbon dioxide, contributing nearly 29 percent of the emissions in 2012.
That has drawn the ire of the mining industry.
“These regulations will hurt jobs and the economy,” said Stuart Sanderson, president of the Colorado Mining Association.
A study done for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy, a trade group, estimated that the West could lose 9,000 mining jobs as the result of the regulations.
Colorado has a renewable energy standard that requires investor-owned utilities — Xcel Energy and Black Hills Energy — to get 30 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2030.
Rural electric cooperatives, many members of Tri-State, have a 20 percent standard.
The state also requires energy efficiency programs for the investor-owned utilities.
Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest electricity provider, has already added renewable energy and energy efficiency programs.
Under the 2010 Clean Air-Clean Jobs Act, Xcel agreed to a $1.1 billion program to close six aging coal-fire plants, add pollution controls at two others and build a cleaner-burning gas fired plant for a total of about $1 billion.
The EPA rules, however, use 2012 as the starting point for emission cuts.
“We just want to make sure we get credit for the billions of dollars in investments we’ve made,” said Jack Ilhe, Xcel’s director of environmental policy. “We feel strongly that companies and states that have been proactive shouldn’t be punished.”
In 2010, Xcel generated 60 percent of its energy from coal. By 2020, coal will provide 48 percent of the electricity and renewable sources 29 percent, according to the company
In a press conference call Monday, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said the 2012 starting date was necessary to “implement the Clean Air Act as intended.”
The Western Resource Advocates reading of the proposed rule would allow Colorado to count all the renewable energy it has created, most of the Clean Air-Clean Jobs carbon cuts and some energy efficiency savings.
The proposed rule offers four sources of carbon reductions: energy efficiency, improving coal plant efficiency, renewable energy and increased use of natural gas.
“It isn’t limited to those four building blocks,” McCarthy said. “States have the smarts and skill to pull this off.”
Even with the gains in renewable energy and efficiency, in 2012, 65 percent of Colorado’s electricity came from coal, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.
“Colorado gets to meet its goals, even with all that coal generation, because in truth the bar in the rule is set very low,” said Leslie Glustrom, research director for Boulder-based Clean Energy Action.
“But if you are trying to lose weight or quit smoking, you don’t go cold turkey, you do it in steps,” Glustrom said.
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912, mjaffe@denverpost.com or twitter.com/bymarkjaffe
Staff writer Thad Moore contributed to this report.
