Colorado Springs deserves a safe and clean future.
Back in 2020, Colorado Springs Utilities and the City Council agreed to close the Ray D. Nixon coal-fired power plant by the end of 2029 to meet the power sector’s 80% reduction target. Yet Colorado Springs Utilities, in conjunction with local legislators’ introduction of bill SB 26-022, has stated that it is re-examining its commitment to the plant’s retirement, distancing itself from the state’s long-agreed-upon clean energy reduction targets.
The decision of local legislators and Colorado Springs Utilities will produce lasting and significant economic and health impacts for Colorado Springs residents that could have easily been avoided. This decision must neither be ignored nor taken lightly.
Colorado Springs residents deserve affordable and predictable bills. They deserve to trust that their representatives will keep promises to their constituents. They deserve a future built on trust, transparency and affordability.
As a student in Colorado Springs and as a constituent of Representative Amy Paschal, I call on her to reconsider her support of SB 26-022 and consider cheaper, cleaner energy alternatives that would benefit not only her immediate constituents but the future of our state. I call on my fellow residents to urge their representatives to oppose Ray D. Nixon’s continued operations and to support our state’s planned transfer to clean energy.
Madeleine Louisell