Xcel Energy doesn't want the issue of global warming allowed at hearings to decide the future of its local electricity generation — despite its plans to build a $1.3 billion coal plant that would emit million of tons of carbon dioxide a year.
At the same time, Xcel's financial plans for the coal plant include scenarios that assess regulatory penalties of between $6 per ton and $12 per ton of carbon dioxide released. Xcel estimates the plant will emit about 6.5 million tons of the greenhouse gas each year. The associated costs represent an increase in costs of between about 10 percent and 25 percent. Xcel's proposed 750-megawatt Comanche 3 coal-fired power plant in Pueblo would generate enough electricity for about 750,000 households once completed in 2009. Xcel says it needs the plant to feed the Front Range's growing hunger for electricity. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission will take up the matter in hearings beginning Monday.
Xcel attorneys asked the Public Utilities Commission Friday to strike from the hearings the testimony of James White, director of the Environmental Center at the University of Colorado . White is a geology professor who studies the ancient climate through ice cores. His testimony addresses the evidence of global warming and humanity's role in it. There was no reference to Xcel or power generation. "It's nothing controversial," White said. "It was, 'All right, folks, we're changing the climate. Let's grow up, be adults for once and admit it.'"
Xcel said in its request the commission had already ruled that "the issue of climate change, similar or identical in thrust of Mr. White's testimony, is outside the scope of this case and of the (Least Cost Plan) rules." Xcel also protested the testimony on procedural grounds."
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