The Colorado Rural Electric Association met earlier this month.
These were members-only meetings. The press is not invited. I would have liked to hear what was being said about the freeze by the Trump administration of federal funds promised electrical cooperatives from the Inflation Reduction Act.
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association alone has been promised $670 million in low-interest loans and other financial assistance to enable it to make the shift from coal plants. I have been told that each day it does not have access to those low-cost federal funds it must pay much more in higher-interest loans on its aging and soon-to-be-stranded coal-burning assets.
I talked with several people who had been at the CREA conference. What I seem to understand — through their ears and eyes — is that the blockage adds apprehension, more to some than others. I also understand that there will be federal outreach to Colorado’s delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives, four of whom are Republicans. This likely will involve some people flying to D.C.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, the newly elected representative of the Third Congressional District — and a former lead counsel for Delta-Montrose Electric — spoke at the Colorado Water Congress. I tried to snag an interview with him. Hurd — who is on the right in the above photo — said he didn’t have time to talk to me, as he was scheduled to speak to the group in about seven minutes. But he took my card.
I later reached out to his offices both in D.C. and in Durango, but so far without response.
What might Hurd have told me? I’m not sure. Everything here is up in the air, as everybody from Jigar Shah to the New York Times have been noting. It’s a basketball game with no shot clock. What constitutes out of bounds remains open to dispute.
Whether there will be referees is still to be decided.
Allen Best publishes the e-journal Big Pivots, which chronicles the energy transition in Colorado and beyond.