A climate scientist who was part of a Nobel Peace Prize-winning group was among those who testified Tuesday in support of a bill promoting large-scale solar power.
The bill tells the state Public Utilities Commission to look at adding large-scale solar power to the state’s energy portfolio and to consider when making decisions the likelihood that carbon emissions will one day be regulated. Kevin Trenberth, one of the lead authors on reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said Tuesday at a committee hearing for the bill that global warming is “unequivocal.”
“The crisis is in the absence of action,” he said. “And that’s where this bill is an important step.”
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shared last year’s Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. But Rick Fanyo, an attorney for Rocky Mountain Steel Mills in Pueblo, said the bill could raise power costs and severely hurt the plant, Xcel Energy’s largest customer in Colorado.The Senate Local Government Committee postponed a vote on the bill, House Bill 1164. John Ingold, The Denver Post
