A bill that would allow small-town electricity cooperatives to charge higher rates to bigger consumers has laid bare a power struggle between the statewide association that represents such co-ops and the biggest electric co-op in the state.
Senate Bill 39 lets rural electric co-ops establish a tiered rate structure that charges the highest rate to people using the most electricity and the lowest rate to people using the least. Environmental groups, which heavily support the bill, say it encourages consumers to use less energy, thus helping all power users.
The Colorado Rural Electric Association — the organization that represents 21 of the 22 electric co-ops in Colorado — also supports the bill, saying it merely provides an option that the independently elected boards of the co-ops can use if they like.
“This can be another tool in the toolbox to use for conservation and energy efficiency,” said Ray Clifton, the executive director of CREA.
That unity of enviro and electro is curious enough at the state Capitol, because green groups rarely find themselves on the same side of a debate as power providers.
“It’s great fun to go into committee with Ray Clifton and the environmental community arm-in-arm,” said Pam Kiely of Environmental Colorado. “. . . I hope it’s the beginning of a new era with the rural electric associations.”
But the head of the Intermountain Rural Electric Association — with about 138,000 customers in the suburbs and exurbs south, west and east of Denver — thinks that era has already arrived. And Stan Lewandowski said that’s why his co-op is no longer connected to CREA.
“They’ve pretty well thrown in the towel, that it’s pretty rare they’re going to be opposing legislation,” said Lewandowski, a skeptic of renewable-energy mandates and human- caused global warming. “They seem to be more interested in negotiating. We’ve taken the attitude that if we don’t like a piece of legislation, force it on us.”
Lewandowski said he’s worried that the option of establishing a tiered rate structure could turn into a mandate in a few years. He said it is unfair for some people — he cited seniors with at-home medical equipment — to be punished because they have to use more power.
Clifton said he would deal with a tiered rate mandate if one materializes and said he is trying to do what’s best for the diverse collection of co-ops he represents. He said CREA can’t be “your grandfather’s utility.”
“I would not say that we are accommodating,” Clifton said. “I would just say what we are trying to do is be part of a changing world, as best we can.”
Clifton said a number of other power providers around the country have either looked at or are charging tiered rates. Colorado’s Public Utility Commission has told Xcel Energy, the state’s largest power provider, to examine such a rate structure.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com
