OPINION: White House ‘Energy Emergency’ is Fake, and Harmful

This op-ed by Silvio Marcacci & Michelle Solomon appeared on Colorado Newsline on October 28, 2025.

If you had a 50-year old truck that cost thousands to keep running, constantly broke down, and gave your kids asthma, would you keep it or buy a new vehicle that always ran and saved you money?

What if the government said you had to keep paying for the old truck because it was the only way to avoid a transportation emergency? Would you believe them?

That’s what’s could happen with Pueblo’s Comanche coal plant, which opened in 1973.

It’s Colorado’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and has been plagued by constant breakdowns and expensive maintenance — the plant’s newest generator was broken down two cumulative years between its construction in 2010 and 2022, and a catastrophic turbine failure kept it offline most of 2020. This all increased Comanche’s energy costs 45%.

And now Comanche is broken down again.

A public records request published by journalist Allen Best unearthed news that the coal clunker went offline Aug. 12, and won’t be online until at least June 2026, while Xcel conducts an investigation into the “root cause” of the latest outage.

When it does run, Comanche belches millions of pounds of air pollution annually, making people sick — Pueblo has some of Colorado’s highest asthma rates — while its power is shipped to other Front Range communities.

Comanche’s remaining two coal-burning generators are scheduled to retire in 2025 and 2031 because Xcel Energy and Colorado’s utility regulators decided its age, significant unplanned closures, and health damage weren’t worth it.

Everyone involved, including Pueblo’s community leaders, agreed the best option was replacing Comanche with new generation sources — not burning fossil fuels.

But Pueblo’s coal-to-clean transition faces an unexpected problem that could hit Colorado within three months.

The U.S. Department of Energy declared an “energy emergency” overriding states and utilities that decided to close aging coal plants to protect families from soaring energy bills and dirty air. New administration announcements will throw $625 million in taxpayer money to subsidize those clunkers. “This administration’s policy is going to be to stop the closure of coal plants,” said Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

Colorado could lose that state’s right as soon as January: Pueblo County recently indicated it wanted the Energy Department to force Xcel to keep Comanche 3 running past its planned retirement — even though it has been one of America’s least reliable plants.

It already happened in Michigan, where a coal plant was forced to stay open, even though Michigan’s top utility regulator said “there is no existing energy emergency.”

Forcing that Michigan coal plant to stay open added $29 million in net energy cost increases over five weeks to energy bills paid by families and businesses. Nationwide, forcing coal plants to stay online could cost $3-$6 billion annually, on top of $6 billion in extra costs consumers paid for coal power in 2024 due to inflation and rising fuel costs.

Colorado’s government, grid experts and Xcel Energy agree Comanche isn’t needed — closing it will cut costs and air pollution. Pueblo does need new tax revenue and jobs, but keeping Comanche online or tying Pueblo’s economic future to expensive, dirty energy forces Coloradans to pay more.

Clean, cheap energy that attracts new manufacturing to an “energy park” could generate $40 million in annual property tax revenue, cut Xcel customer bills, and create local jobs. Data shows bundling renewables plus batteries strengthens our grid and prevents blackouts.

At public hearings were held by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to determine Comanche’s replacement, Puebloans touted the energy park’s potential to attract investment. No one said they wanted Xcel to change its mind and keep burning expensive, dirty coal.

Accelerating the coal-to-clean transition could snag big discounts from federal funds. That’s why the Polis administration ordered state agencies to cut red tape to build as much clean energy before the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s” regressive repeals spike clean energy project prices by 30%-50%.

Colorado’s statewide electricity prices rose 24% between 2021-2024 and could soar another 45% by 2030 as OBBBA’s repeals take hold. We simply can’t afford this fake “energy emergency,” especially if it means keeping such an expensive jalopy online.

We have legal recourse — if the Trump administration orders Comanche to stay open, Attorney General Phil Weiser could sue to stop the Energy Department’s decision, like Michigan did, and Colorado’s PUC or Xcel could petition against it.

We think Coloradans deserve the right to decide how we power our homes, protect our kids from dirty air, and insulate our families from surging energy bills.

Forcing Comanche to stay online takes away all those rights — it’s an idea that should never come to pass.