Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has done it again — proving when regulators get together, they can create a fantasyland so detached from reality. This latest variation of stupidity is a whopper!
The PUC just adopted a new rule ordering power utilities to slash greenhouse emissions 41% by 2035, a big jump from the legislature’s original “let’s try not to panic anyone” target of 22% by 2030. And they tied the whole package to Colorado’s statewide goal of eliminating greenhouse gases by 2050. Eliminating — as in zero. As in, “Natural gas and coal, thanks for your service, appreciate you heating our homes and powering two-thirds of our electricity. Now pack your things.”
Back in 2021, lawmakers required utilities to file “clean heat plans.” The idea was simple: reduce emissions a little, tinker around the system, maybe switch a few customers to electric heat pumps. In politician-speak, this is called incremental change. In real life, it’s called unrealistic. This a special brand of stupidity that only makes sense to the folks pushing their agenda(s).
But this is no longer a clean heat plan, instead it’s a “Dear John” letter to your furnace. You see, “eliminating greenhouse gases” means eliminating all coal and natural gas, and therefore most all our electricity too. How you power “all electric” affordable housing units without electricity is a mystery to me, frankly.
No plan survives first contact with reality — or with Gov. Pontius Polis’ Colorado Energy Office, which in July suggested the PUC, which is appointed by Pontius Polis, raise the target to 41%. Utilities fought the idea. Consumer advocates fought it. Even the unions said, “Um, guys? Are you on drugs?”
The PUC oligarchy responded, “Great feedback, everyone. We’re doing it anyway.” Regardless of how much “hope-ee-um” you smoke, math and physics aren’t negotiable. This is yet another unrealistic regulation by the sitting bureaucracy in a vain attempt to further their illusion of a utopia. News flash, folks: this is another one for the pile of failures you have perpetrated on the citizens of Colorado. My advice to fellow Coloradans: get a wood stove, buy lots of blankets, or, rent a U-Haul and move out of the state. Just when you think you hit the bottom of the “stupidity pit”, the floor drops out, AGAIN. May God have mercy on us!
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