There was a mighty display of direct confrontation between the local environmental community and the entrenched power structure around our local utility company, the Platte River Power Authority (PRPA), at a fateful meeting of the Larimer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) on Monday, April 21, 2025. It is fair to say it was somewhat of a shootout, with each side firing its best arguments before the three attentive commissioners, attempting to persuade them of the merits of their case, and pointing out the weaknesses in the arguments of the opposing side. Not unlike the shootout at the OK Corral, one side or the other was going to win, a fight to the death, so to speak. The consequences of it will be felt for decades, and it was a telling moment for just how much the country commissioners are aligned with the transition to renewable energy.

The entire recording can be seen here

What was being debated was whether the BOCC should approve or deny the 1041 Permit for the PRPA to build a gas-fired power plant to supplement its generating capacity as it retires the coal burning part of the plant. That is the huge smokestack that you can see west of I-25 as you drive north towards Cheyenne.

If the gas plant is built, it will mean the PRPA will not be 100% fossil free in 2030, which was their original goal in 2018. Instead, PRPA will be relying on natural gas, i.e. methane, a notoriously potent greenhouse gas, for decades to come to assure its generating capacity. This would, I can only imagine, have the effect of blunting any push into using renewable technology to its utmost. This is particularly true of making use of virtual power plant technology, which the PRPA has kept under wraps, saying almost nothing how they intend to roll that out (more on that in future posts about how other utilities are using it).

The environmental community was not calling for an absolute denial of building the gas plant; they were only saying that the BOCC should get an independent opinion from an unbiased source, preferably NREL, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, to analyze this. Because the unfolding scenarios for how the utility industry is changing are so complex in the current times, it takes the expertise of such a reputable research facility to address the issue with confidence. Obviously, the environmental community was not trusting the analysis from PRPA, for reasons which made abundantly clear during their presentation.

Though I would normally not covera meeting in such detail, this was such an historic event it deserves it. So, here is how the meeting went down:

First, a PRPA attorney spoke for 15 minutes on their reasons why they believe the gas plant is needed. Then there was extended dialogue between the PRPA staff (primarily Jason Frisbie freely speaking his mind with no time limit) and the commissioners for about the next hour…while the public attendees waited their turn. (This is how things work at such public meetings: the incumbent party has the advantage of tiring out the public before they even get to speak.)

During the following public comment period, each speaker had just two minutes. There were a number who spoke in favor of the gas plant. So, after about an hour and 10 minutes, the first of the environmental contingent began to speak (about 1:39 into the meeting. Note that the meeting does not start until about 20 minutes into the recording.)

I could not attend in person, but did watch the meeting carefully via Zoom, and took these screenshots of those who spoke.

(Note: click an image to see an enlarged version)

First to speak was Mike Foote:

Mike’s comments mainly concerned that PRPA’s plan will violate the county’s Land Use Plan because of insufficient evaluation of its environmental impacts. It sure seemed pretty convincing to me!

This slide shows how the electricity generated by natural gas (PRPA does have gas-fired peaking units now), using PRPA’s own data, was sold outside its service area, and not locally needed. Another convincing point: since PRPA is covering its existing demand without gas, why is the gas plant needed?

Next was Barb Krupnik-Goldman: she addressed  ozone as as key concern, which reported on PRPA’s refusal to cooperate with requests to minimize current ozone production.

Next was Kevin Cross:

Kevin’s slides pointed out drawbacks in PRPA’s scenarios about renewable energy, which emphasized “dark calms” in winter months when it may not be able to provide sufficient electricity to meet demand.

As for ozone precursors, the Rawhide plant is, by far, the largest source of ozone precursors in the county:

Finally, the Sierra Club was represented by Doug Henderson, who roundly called out PRPA for not making a convincing case for investing $300 million in a new gas plant.

A major point of the environmental contingent was that PRPA’s own analysis showed that a new gas plant really wasn’t necessary.

During all this commentary, there was much commentary by the commissioners themselves, particularly Commissioner Kefalas, who asked many questions.

In hindsight, some of my colleagues and I wonder why the cost factor was hardly raised. Past estimates put the rate increase at 6 percent per year for 10 years; which, in the end, is around an 80% increase! We should be asking PRPA more detailed questions on anticipated rate increases as they move forward with this enormous project.

As I did not observe the entire meeting (it went on for over five hours) I cannot say exactly when the commissioners came to a final vote; but one of those who did was Kevin Cross, convenor of the Fort Collins Sustainability Group, who has been at the forefront of this battle from the beginning.

However, in the end, the decision was not satisfactory to the environmental community; I will post here the statement made the following morning by Kevin’s statement:

Good morning, CCLC and NCP4CE Member Representatives and Allies –

First, I want to thank everyone on these listservs who contributed toward our legal expenses to oppose the Platte River Power Authority’s gas plant application to Larimer County.  Altogether, we raised just under $22,700, which in turn is just shy of the amount we’ll need to pay our able attorney, Mike Foote, for his work to date.

I am sorry to report that the outcome of the continuation hearing last night was not great, despite a number of initial good questions and statements from the commissioners, in particular from John Kefalas and Jody Shadduck-McNally.  It was apparent from the outset that the commissioners were more interested in imposing “conditions of approval” rather than an outright denial of the application, as we were urging.  Conditions of approval could have included things that we would have been at least somewhat satisfied with, however, such as a limit on the generating capacity of the new plant and limits on when it could operate, e.g. on Ozone Alert days.

In the end, though, the conditions of approval were watered down to the point of being nearly meaningless.  The PRPA will need to prepare a couple of reports, one explaining how joining the Southwest Power Pool in 2026 will help them use more renewables, and one justifying their decision to build a 200 MW gas plant rather than a 160 MW gas plant – which would still be too big.  Limitations on operating hours and emissions were rejected by the PRPA, and the commissioners did not push back, despite, of course having he power to do so.  It wasn’t helpful that county staff was in full support of the proposal, and didn’t provide any support to those commissioners who may have wanted to take a firmer line.

I am anticipating that there will be stories on all this in both the Coloradoan and KUNC, and will share those with you all if and when they appear.  And – we are not “done” with our opposition to the gas plant yet, but it’s too early to talk about “next steps” yet.  I will let you all know when we’re ready to do that.

With appreciation for everyone’s support,

Kevin Cross

Board Member, Northern Colorado Alliance for a Livable Future