Colorado Campaign for Renewable-Energy Initiative Kicks Off
In November, Colorado citizens will vote on the first-ever statewide initiative on renewable energy. The Colorado Renewable Energy Initiative would require that the state’s major utility companies generate 10 percent of their energy from renewable sources — solar, biomass, wind, hydro, and geothermal — by 2015. A bipartisan campaign in favor of the initiative kicked off this week, led by state House Speaker Lola Spradley (R) and congressional Rep. Mark Udall (D), emphasizing the security and economic benefits Colorado could reap. A legislative effort to establish a similar target was narrowly defeated in the state Senate last May. Though a recent poll found that 73 percent of respondents favored a renewable-energy initiative, it is opposed by the state’s energy companies, which claim that its prescriptions are too detailed and leave them too little flexibility to keep prices down.
