Lawmakers and officials for Colorado Springs Utilities announced plans Monday to push for a legislative change that would allow the utility’s coal-fire power plant to remain open for a few years beyond the current 2029 closure date.

A bipartisan group of state lawmakers, including the Republican minority leaders for the House and Senate, spoke at the press conference Monday afternoon to announce their support for a bill largely inspired by the Ray Nixon Power Plant.

Ray Nixon, which began operating in 1980, has been scheduled to close by the end of the decade, part of a series of closures to coal-burning power plants across Colorado as utility companies try to meet the deadlines in the Colorado Clean Energy Plan. The state law required utilities to develop a plan that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80% between their 2005 levels and 2030.

Utilities CEO Travas Deal began saying in the spring of 2025 that the agency would no longer be able to close the power plant by that time. Deal said the alternative, more environmentally-friendly ways to generate energy were more expensive to build than expected and the transmission infrastructure the city would need may not be available in time.

While Deal said he agreed with the legislation’s intent to create a path for more clean energy in Colorado, he argued the plan did not give utilities enough flexibility to adapt.

“Any legislation is going to have winners and losers and those who need help in between. We are definitely in between there,” Deal said.

The proposed legislation, the text of which is still being finalized, would allow public municipal utilities to modify their Clean Energy Plan goals for 2030 in certain circumstances. Lawmakers on Monday did not identify any other public utilities that were interested in the same exemption.

The law would not apply to for-profit utility companies like Xcel Energy, whose energy plans are overseen by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.

The bill was supported by Democratic Sen. Marc Snyder and Rep. Amy Paschal, both of whom represent districts in El Paso County. Paschal said she understood the desire to improve the region’s air quality by continuing to move away from coal power. She said that many people who care about the environment also care about keeping prices for power low.

“It aims to strike the delicate balance between affordability, reliability and clean energy in Colorado Springs. It would allow local utility providers to modify, but not abandon, their plans,” Paschal said.

House Minority Leader Jarvis Caldwell, who also represents Colorado Springs, said the Democratic leaders in the state House had seemed open to the legislation when he brought it up to them.

Deal cited the steps Colorado Springs Utilities has already made on the Clean Energy Plan goals as proof the Ray Nixon decision would not be delayed too far. Utilities closed down the Martin Drake Power Plant beginning in 2021 as part of the effort to move away from coal-fired power.

EPA REJECTS COLORADO HAZE PLAN OVER RAY NIXON TIMELINE

Colorado will also face pressure from the federal government for the Ray Nixon Power Plant to continue operating.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that it planned to reject the entirety of Colorado’s most recent revision to its regional haze plan. The draft report primarily cited the questions over the closure of Ray Nixon as the reason for not approving the plan.

The pre-publication EPA report released last week said the state was not doing enough to accommodate Utilities’ assertions that they were no longer able to close the power plant and that it was incumbent on the state government to take “appropriate steps” to revise the plan.

“The unconsented source closure of Nixon Unit 1 was included in Colorado’s long-term strategy, rendering the long-term strategy similarly unapprovable,” the draft report stated.

The report cited the decision to remove the closure of Pueblo’s Comanche 2 coal power plant from the state’s regional haze plan as the type of move the state could make for Colorado Springs. The Comanche 2 decision was made by the Public Utilities Commission.

Deal said that he largely agreed with the federal decision to reject the entirety of the regional haze plan.

“It’s good that it is forcing a conversation between the state, federal and us local utility providers to make sure anything we do will have a beneficial outcome to all involved,” Deal said.

Colorado will have two years to resubmit a version of the regional haze plan that gets approved by the EPA. If that doesn’t happen, the federal agency will be able to step in and write the state plan itself.

Additional details about how long Ray Nixon would continue to operate will be included in the electric integrated resource plan Colorado Springs Utilities will publish in the next few months.