Energy costs and clean energy funding in Colorado are on the brink of significant change following proposed rollbacks in the Republicans' federal budget bill. Governor Jared Polis and Energy Office Executive Director Will Toor took a hard stand against these potential cuts, sending a letter to Colorado’s congressional delegation and the leadership of the Senate Finance Committee. In a clear message, detailed by the Colorado Governor's Office, they expressed their concern over the impacts these rollbacks would have on the state's economy and energy costs for residents.
Gov. Polis argued that the Senate needs to discard the House budget in favor of one that will not retract from achievements in clean energy, stating, "The Senate must scrap the House budget and start from scratch to remove these and other disastrous cuts that will increase costs, make America less competitive, and increase pollution," as obtained by Colorado Governor's Office. This sentiment stems from the fact that in 2024, a significant 95 percent of new electricity capacity in the U.S. originated from renewable sources – solar, batteries, nuclear, and wind power. The potential rollbacks threaten to raise energy costs on Colorado families by as much as ten percent by the year 2030, according to Polis and Toor.
Impacting more than just the pocketbooks of Colorado families, these federal cuts could disrupt the livelihoods of local landowners and farmers. "Up to thirty percent of Colorado households are energy burdened, meaning a large part of their incomes are spent on electricity, heating, and cooling," Polis and Toor indicated in their message, as per the Colorado Governor's Office. They further highlighted that the state has benefited from the investments and credits afforded by the federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which have helped alleviate costs on multiple fronts, from agricultural deployments of solar panels to household tax savings.
The governor and the director emphasized the important strides made in U.S.-based manufacturing of crucial energy technologies, crediting the IRA with reducing dependency on unreliable or hostile foreign suppliers. "By strengthening U.S.-based manufacturing of critical technologies, like batteries, solar components, and semiconductors, the IRA is reducing our reliance on unstable or adversarial foreign suppliers," they affirmed, noted by the Colorado Governor's Office. Moreover, the cuts would undermine United States military readiness and energy resilience, which are particularly pertinent given Colorado's several defense installations.
