We’re not surprised that the Public Utilities Commission last week upheld its previous approval of a 136-mile power line that would cross the Trinchera Ranch in southern Colorado. Still, we remain baffled and disappointed by how the commission has given a green light to scarring this jewel of natural beauty.
No, we’re not naive about the tradeoffs that inevitably involve any construction or industrial development. It goes without saying that electrical power is essential to the prosperity of this state, and that the San Luis Valley boasts superb locations to generate solar power.
Yet it is equally true that Xcel Energy confirmed last year in testimony before the PUC that it was on course to meet the state’s 30 percent renewable-energy standard without the controversial transmission line that would carry solar and wind energy from the valley over La Veta Pass to the Front Range. And yet the PUC approved the project early this year without even the sort of minimal safeguards recommended by an administrative law judge.
Judge Mana Jennings-Faderhad recommended approval of the project on condition that it connect 700 megawatts of generation within 10 years of its completion. If it didn’t, Xcel customers would have been reimbursed for half of the project’s cost they’d paid in higher rates.
The project is also being developed by Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, which is not subject to the same regulatory approval process.
The PUC staff also supported the reimbursement condition for Xcel. The idea was to ensure that the company had some skin in the game should renewable energy fail to develop into the bonanza for southern Colorado that utility officials expect.
When the PUC gave preliminary approval to the $180 million line in February, however, the two commissioners who voted — the third had recused himself — declined to adopt that consumer-protection condition. And commissioners refused to reconsider their decision last week.
Trinchera Ranch owner Louis Bacon, who has led the fight against the project, has promised to file suit to stop the transmission line now that he has exhausted his options before the PUC.
“Fortunately, (Friday’s) decision is not the final hurdle for the utilities,” said Bacon spokesman Cody Wertz. “They still need to justify this project to the public in a federal environmental impact statement assessment process. They then need approval from the county commissioners of each of the four counties through which the line would slash.”
We wish Bacon well. The PUC should have examined more closely alternatives to the route across Trinchera Ranch. And if the commission had no intention of doing that, at the very least it should have built some degree of consumer protection into any final approval.
