A bill to double the state’s power generation from renewable energy would add 4,100 jobs by 2020 and contribute $1.9 billion to Colorado’s economy, according to a study released Thursday by an environmental advocacy group.
The study by Environment Colorado said House Bill 1281 would bring substantial benefits to rural economies while also helping reduce airborne emissions.
“More clean, homegrown energy means more jobs and higher wages paid for Coloradans,” Gov. Bill Ritter said at a news conference to announce the study results.
Owners of farm and ranch land where wind turbines are built would receive a total of $50 million in lease payments through 2020, the study said, 60 percent more than they receive under Colorado’s current renewable-energy standard.
Some other contributors to Colorado’s economy from renewables would be $400 million in property taxes paid by landowners and businesses that own solar panels or wind turbines and $570 million in higher wages for workers in renewable-energy businesses, according to the report.
Doubling the standard also would reduce soot, smog, mercury and carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants by 11 percent, according to the study.
The legislation is scheduled for its first full vote in the Colorado House of Representatives today. Last week, it passed the House Transportation and Energy Committee in a unanimous, bipartisan vote.
But the bill’s chief opponent, Sedalia-based Intermountain Rural Electric Association, is seeking an amendment that would allow the co-op to opt out of the new mandate.
House Republicans spokesman Randy Hildreth said it is likely such an amendment will be introduced.
IREA members in 2005 voted by a roughly 4-to-1 ratio to opt out of Amendment 37, the statewide mandate passed by voters in 2004 that requires utilities to use renewable energy for 10 percent of their power by 2015.
The co-op should be allowed to be grandfathered out of the new legislation because of its members’ prior vote, said Stan Lewandowski, Intermountain’s general manager.
Without disputing or affirming results of the economic-impact study, Lewandowski said he takes issue with the idea that some Colorado sectors would benefit at the expense of typical utility customers. “There are obviously economic benefits to one group of individuals, but someone else will pay for it,” he said.
Lewandowski said when all costs of renewable energy are considered, such as building new transmission lines and backup generation, the price is double that of conventional coal- or natural-gas-fired power.
That notion is disputed by renewable-energy advocates who say costs would be lower because consumers would be protected from projected price increases for coal, gas and possible taxes on carbon emissions from power plants.
Staff writer Steve Raabe can be reached at 303-954-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com.
