Recommended course of action for a state: Colorado

1. HaroldSowards
Energy
4/9/15
Recommended course of action for a state
1. Select a state of your choice from the fifty U.S. states.
The state I intended to do this course of action towards is Colorado.
2. Describe the energy policies, both current and needed, including direction for the
state government and the private sector within the state.
According to Patterson, Colorado now has a mandatory renewable energy standard of 30% to be
reached by 2020 for all utility companies who have 40,000+ customers. They have a mandatory
energy efficiency standard that is required to reduce 5% of both the 2006 demand and electricity
sales by the year 2018. They also have a net-metering standard for all utilities that has a 2000
kW capacity for municipalities, 25 kW for non-residential areas and 10 kW for residential areas.
There is also some policies that require most of the people who work in the energy companies to
have a lot of training so that they are competent in their area of business. According to the
Institute for Energy Research, Colorado doesn’t cap greenhouse emissions, they require all
utilities to generate a percentage of their electricity from renewable sources, buildings must meet
new energy efficiency standards, and all utilities can’t decouple revenue from their source. For
the future, most of these policies if they work (based off the objective set) then they should be
renewed and continued at a higher percentage. I think there should be some more policies
regarding geothermal energy and how that form of energy should be obtained, but that is just me.
3. Assess all energy sources, both current and projected, including intrastate and
interstate.
Intrastate, Colorado has a total of 380 solar companies with a total of 398 MW of solar
electricity capacity which can power over 76,000 according to SEIA. According to
Colorado.gov, the state is 9th in crude oil, 11th in coal, 8th in solar, and 10th in all wind

2. HaroldSowards
Energy
4/9/15
production for the United States and according to Ballotepedia, they are the 6th largest
Natural Gas producer in the US and they also have 70 hydroelectric facilities, they
produce 1/50 barrels of the total US output (mostly from the Niobrara Shale), they also
have two natural gas hubs in Cheyenne and White River, with access to wind energy also
being present in the Rockies and a few hot springs for geothermal energy. Interstate they
have the following states near them: Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah
and Wyoming. This is actually a good thing because according to Ballotepedia, they have
huge coal reserves in Wyoming and they get most of their solar energy near facilities in
New Mexico. In Utah there is a huge supply of natural gas, so they have that option as
well.
4. Rate the dependability of each source in #3.
Well, personally it seems like their solar and their geothermal sources of energy in-state can
be improved and probably will need to be that way if they want to keep up with demand in
the future. So, for now those two sources aren’t so dependable. The natural gas source for
that area (in and out of state) is phenomenal with the shales being able to provide natural gas
for about 16 states and they constantly find new options for future sites. However, their coal
reserves just like those of Wyoming will probably start to diminish in the near future, so
currently that option is very dependable but in the future it might start getting a little less
dependable until it is finally exhausted. Their hydroelectric facilities can be very dependable
because there is the Colorado River which seems to be a very dependable source of water for
most of the state, so if they can add more facilities or find more options for it, then that
option could take off and be very dependable in supplying them with energy. It also seems
like they have a very dependable source of wind energy, but they just haven’t utilized it yet.

3. HaroldSowards
Energy
4/9/15
So, if they would start putting up some turbines and take advantage of the area, then they
could produce a lot more energy than before.
5. Is the state energy self-sufficient now or could it be in the future?
Honestly, from all the information I listed earlier; 6th in Natural Gas, 9th in Crude Oil, 11th
in coal, 8th in solar and 10th in wind, I can say that that seems very self-sufficient to me.
However, since it does get some of its energy from New Mexico and Wyoming, I can’t
say that at the moment it is completely self-sufficient. In the future, if it stops getting coal
from Wyoming and relies on its own coal reserves, then that could take a step to be that
way. Also, if they would start putting up wind turbines to harness wind energy they
would have a huge boost in energy production and that could help make them rely less on
coal as well. However, since Colorado is pristine for good sunlight, they could also start
putting up solar panels and harness that energy and remove their possible dependence
from New Mexico. These are suggestions, but honestly I can’t say that any state can be
completely self-sufficient because they will always need to tap into another state’s
reserves when theirs gets a bit low.
6. Describe the state’s exports of energy, if any.
According to the Institute for Energy Research, Colorado exports about ¾ of their coal
production to other states. They also send most of their natural gas production to 16
other states. According to MetroDenver they export stuff to Canada and Mexico has well
because they are in a prime trading location.
7. What role does energy play in the economy of the state (jobs, payroll, taxes, etc.)?
According to Cathy Proctor, just last year alone in the wind energy department, Colorado
brought in 1,583 jobs and was ranked #7 in new energy jobs out of the 50 states. Also,

4. HaroldSowards
Energy
4/9/15
according to Howard Pankratz, between 2007 and 2012, Colorado has seen a 40.3%
increase in jobs in the clean energy department and a 19.5% increase in fossil fuel jobs,
which are both more than the national averages at the time (13.8,14.3 % respectively).
This is huge for the economy has more jobs means more money is being redistributed
into that area. I want to say that the next point is a bit biased, but the numbers help make
a point about how much money is brought in from these industries. So, according to the
Rocky Mountain Energy Forum, the oil and gas industries in Colorado distributed $23.3
billion to the economy and due to taxes they distributed $204,680,482 to schools. This
number is supposed to reach an estimated $6.36 billion by 2020, which is a huge stimulus
boost to any state’s economy. It also says that they have to pay a 95% severance tax on
all their products, which I’m not exactly sure what that affects, but I thought it was worth
mentioning.
8. What are the prospects for maintaining energy costs at current levels or even
reducing such costs?
Well, like I listed in the earlier half of this paper, the prospects would be a higher revenue
build up that would continue to stimulate the economy as well as help keep all the
policies in check. However, if you reduce these costs then the companies producing the
electricity would be able to hire more workers and be able to get more technology in
place to possibly better the production efforts of the energy industry which would also
result in a lot of positive aspects for the economy. So, in my opinion, I’d honestly rather
rewrite my policies so that I can further the potential of the industry instead of focusing
on keeping them the same and losing some potential investments and energy outcomes.
9. What effect would energy cost increases have on that state’s economy?

5. HaroldSowards
Energy
4/9/15
If you are talking in terms of raising the cost of electricity, then maybe the economy
wouldn’t be as stimulated as much by outside purchasing, because the citizens would be
took focused on getting their bills paid that they may not be able to splurge any.
However, if you are talking about increasing the cost of obtaining the permits and the
actual cost of producing such energy, you would see a bigger drop off in state income,
but the companies would start relocating and may even start cutting people from their
jobs, in order to keep money in their pockets as well.
10. Describe energy efficiency efforts, if any, within the state.
They are training their employees to do personal energy audits as well as offering their residents
free advising and counseling options to improve their energy efficiency. Also, like I listed in the
policy section earlier, they have released mandatory energy efficiency standards to start reducing
the demand and sale by 5% by the year 2018. Most of the cities are starting to upgrade their
regulations for new homes and businesses that require them to meet certain energy standards as
well, so that greenhouse gas emissions are cut down in the state. Also, I saw that they were
offering rebates to anyone who takes part in any kind of conservation program for energy, which
I thought was nice.
11. Describe energy conservation efforts, if any, within the state.
Honestly, I wasn’t able to find anything on this, but I did find how the state is continuously
moving forward with their energy business, which is a good thing. New research and
developments can only lead to improvements.
References

6. HaroldSowards
Energy
4/9/15
Ballotpedia.(2014).EnergypolicyinColorado.Retrievedfrom:
http://ballotpedia.org/Energy_policy_in_Colorado
ColoradoEnergyOffice.AmericanReinvestment&RecoveryActreport.Retrievedfrom:
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheadername1=Content-
Disposition&blobheadername2=Content-
Type&blobheadervalue1=inline%3B+filename%3D%22ARRA+Report.pdf%22&blobheadervalue2
=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1251844553290&ssbinar
y=true
ColoradoEnergyOffice.(2014).Coloradostate energyreport2014. Retrievedfrom:
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheadername1=Content-
Disposition&blobheadername2=Content-
Type&blobheadervalue1=inline%3B+filename%3D%22The+Colorado+State+Energy+Report+201
4.pdf%22&blobheadervalue2=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwh
ere=1251995613769&ssbinary=true
Institute forEnergyResearch.Coloradoenergyfacts. Retrievedfrom:
http://instituteforenergyresearch.org/media/state-regs/pdf/Colorado.pdf
Metro Denver.(2014). International trade.Retrievedfrom: http://www.metrodenver.org/do-
business/international-trade/exports/
Pankratz,H. (2012, December13). Report:Boomingenergysectorhasledto good-payingjobsin
Colorado. TheDenver Post.Retrievedfrom: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_22185353/report-
booming-energy-sector-has-led-good-paying

7. HaroldSowards
Energy
4/9/15
Patterson,J.(2014). ColoradoReport.Justenergy policies:Reducing pollution and creating jobs.
Retrievedfrom:http://action.naacp.org/page/-
/Climate/JustEnergyPolicies%20COLORADO%20REPORT--FEBRUARY%202014.pdf
Proctor,C. (2015, March 5). Colorado’sinthe top 10 fornew cleanenergyjobs,mostlyinwindpower.
DenverBusinessJournal.Retrievedfrom:
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/earth_to_power/2015/03/colorados-in-the-top-10-
for-new-clean-energy-jobs.html
Rocky MountainEnergyForum.ColoradoRevenue.Retrievedfrom:
http://www.rockymountainenergyforum.com/topics/colorado-revenue
SolarEnergyIndustriesAssociation.ColoradoSolar.State SolarPolicy.Retrievedfrom:
http://www.seia.org/state-solar-policy/colorado