DENVER—A former state senator has filed ethics complaints against two Colorado Public Utilities Commission members, saying that trips they took last year violated state ethics laws.
Andy McElhany, of Colorado Springs, said in complaints dated Wednesday and filed with the Independent Ethics Commission that the natural gas analytics company Bentek Energy reimbursed commission chairman Ron Binz for travel costs to a symposium in Houston in June.
That violated a constitutional amendment barring public officials from accepting anything worth more than $50, according to the complaint.
The trip “at a minimum” created an appearance of impropriety because it came before the PUC considered two utilities’ plans to retire some coal-fired power plants and replace them with natural gas-fired ones, McElhany said.
In a separate complaint, McElhany said Commissioner Matt Baker was reimbursed by a company owned by the Spanish government for a November trade mission to Seville, Spain, in violation of Amendment 41, which includes the cap on what public officials can receive.
Doug Platt, spokesman for the state ethics commission, said state law prohibits him from saying whether an ethics complaint has been submitted until the commission determines it’s not frivolous.
Binz and Baker both said their trips were approved by the Department of Regulatory Agencies. Binz said in a written statement that his speech at the Houston symposium was one of at least 10 he gave on a new state law requiring utilities to reduce emissions from power plants.
“There is a very high level of interest nationally in Colorado’s ‘Clean Air Clean Jobs Act’ and its implementation,” Binz wrote.
The PUC is charged with approving rules to implement the law, aimed at helping Colorado meet federal clean-air rules. The law has been criticized by coal companies and public officials in coal-producing areas who say it was enacted with little input from the coal industry.
In Spain, Baker met with executives of 15 companies interested in doing business in Colorado, according to a statement issued through the PUC. He said the governor’s office also approved the trip.
McElhany said he worked on ethics legislation while in the Legislature and filed the complaints because he believes the trips were “a clear violation.”
“I think we’ve all had a lot of questions about how it was going to be enforced,” McElhany said.
