On the job for just six weeks, Tom Plant is off to a fast start as the new director of the Colorado Governor’s Office of Energy Management and Conservation.
First it was his office’s surprising announcement this month that Colorado has some of the nation’s best potential for geothermal-energy development.
Then last week, the energy office generated headlines and TV news footage by announcing a plan to triple the number of E85 ethanol fuel pumps in the state.
The timing was perfect for Plant, 44, a term- limited Democrat who had just completed eight years in the Colorado House, representing Boulder, Gilpin and Clear Creek counties.
With Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter making renewable energy one of his chief initiatives, Plant, an alternative-energy advocate for years, was perceived as an obvious choice for the energy office.
“The governor laid out his vision of a new energy economy, and we’ve seen that vision catch fire,” Plant said.
Ritter and majority Democrats in the legislature are pushing bills to double the state’s mandated use of renewable energy and build more transmission lines to carry renewable-based electricity, and other measures to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
Yet Plant sees Colorado running behind several states that have funds earmarked for renewable-energy development.
Ritter has discussed creating such a fund, but no measures are yet on the table.
Until that occurs, Plant said, the energy office will support community efforts for renewables and energy-efficiency programs, help promising technologies move from laboratories to the marketplace and develop renewable-energy workforce- training programs.
In addition to his legislative background, Plant served as executive director of the Center for ReSource Conservation. The nonprofit develops programs for energy efficiency, renewable energy, water conservation, green building and construction-waste reduction.
“Tom has hands-on experience in government and hands- on experience in project development,” said Craig Cox, executive director of the Interwest Energy Alliance, a wind-energy industry group. “I think he is bringing really good life experience into this job.”
Plant was the subject of a legislative controversy last year when, as chairman of the appropriations committee, he amended a bill to allow the governor’s energy office to offer $75,000 in grants to “advance energy-efficiency design and construction.”
Plant’s nonprofit group then applied for a $75,000 grant to educate “building professionals and consumers … to create high-performance structures.” The group received $25,000.
Republicans called for an ethics investigation. Plant denied any impropriety, and no investigation was undertaken.
Staff writer Steve Raabe can be reached at 303-954-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com.
