Now Xcel wants to burn biomass at Colorado coal plant

It seems there is nothing Xcel Energy won't do to convince the Colorado Public Utilities Commission that it's not a fly-by-night Earth hating gangster that exists solely to enrich its shareholders. 

Advocates for the Earth are concerned that the megacorp is doing little to offset its reliance on natural gas and that biomass is hardly a sustainable fuel. $5 billion of Xcel’s 'clean energy' goals means some 2.3% increases in customer costs for its 1.6 million subscribers but the other $10 billion will be borne by taxpayers.

As part of its “Just Transition” plan for Hayden, Xcel Energy is proposing the creation of a 19-megawatt biomass plant at the Hayden Generating Station with the two aging units at the coal-fired power plant set to be retired in 2027 and 2028. The biomass unit would utilize primarily forest waste resulting from fire prevention activities and residual debris from beetle-killed trees, according to the Xcel report. Xcel’s Clean Energy Plan proposes to double the amount of renewable energy on the system and invest up to $15 billion across Colorado while taking advantage of $10 billion in Inflation Reduction Act tax credit benefits to reduce costs and support customers, communities and workers. [Steamboat Pilot and Today]

The move comes in tandem with complaints by the utility that rooftop solar could sink its very existence. 

In light of findings in the causes of the Marshall Fire seven lawsuits have been combined as a class action and filed against Earth hater Xcel in Colorado courts but experts expect many more even as the state seeks to use the company's transmission lines to move electricity generated by geothermal energy. 

Hulett, Wyoming-based Neiman Enterprises purchased Montrose Forest Products in Colorado in 2012 so in 2018 after the Trump Organization gutted the National Environmental Policy Act Neiman shipped twelve loads of timber from the San Juan National Forest in Colorado to mills in South Dakota. Neiman wants to log 20 million board feet of ponderosa pine per year in Colorado for the next 20 years. Knot-free old growth ponderosa pine is coveted by door and window manufacturers like Pella, Marvin and Andersen.

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) has just secured $2.5 billion for mitigation in the aftermath of the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak wildfire complex. Harvest of some of that Santa Fe National Forest material could be processed for biochar. Republicans in New Mexico blame the Forest Service for wildfires despite the straight line to the Trump Organization and its Secretary of Agriculture.

Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy screws customers in Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas and New Mexico but the company gives twice as much campaign dough to Earth haters than to Democrats.