Implementation of the Clean Heat Plan

By now, most Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) rate payers have received notice about the Energy Wise rate increases taking effect in early March 2026. A historical review of pertinent facts is called for.

The Colorado Legislature began its attempt to regulate carbon dioxide (0.0425% of atmospheric gases) emissions in 2019 with the passage of HB19-1261, followed two years later with SB21-264 and most recently HB25-1161. Cumulatively, the effect of these legislative actions would be to outlaw the use of coal and natural gas in residential and commercial structures by 2035. No cost benefit analyses support these Legislative initiatives and their impact on global temperature is less than 0.001 degree Celsius – well within the error of the estimate.

In response to these mandates, CSU began implementation of its required Clean Heat Plan by retiring the Drake Power Station and replacing it with six natural gas fired swing generators at a cost of $660 million.

Other current Heat Plan infrastructure changes now under construction include the Pike Solar Array and Jackson Fuller Energy Storage Project. Additionally, CSU is adding 10 miles of new natural gas pipelines to support current (50% by gas) and future electric generation.

These projects are necessary to “help reduce the need to build additional sources for electric generation such as power plants”, paradoxically, like the recently demolished Drake Power Station. CSU has now recognized that it cannot economically meet both growing electrical demand and Clean Heat Plan requirements and have actively lobbied the Legislature to allow the Nixon Power Station to remain open past its anticipated 2029 closure through proposed Legislation SB26-022.

Governor Jared Polis alluded to the “Colorado Way” in his recent State of the State address; the Colorado Way must include endless legislative edicts to financially burden Colorado tax payers and CSU consumers. It’s time for a change in our Colorado government this November.

James Komadina

Colorado Springs

Latest crime-fighting technology

I wish to applaud the Colorado Springs Police Department for their rapid success using the Amber alert system in the safe return of the child kidnapped in a stolen vehicle two days ago.

The Colorado Springs Police used the latest crime-fighting technology to track down the vehicle, leading to a near-real-time rescue of the child. I want to thank Chief Adrian Vasquez and his daring police officers for their use of vehicle tracking technology to find the stolen vehicle finding the child in hours, crying but unharmed. In my view, CSPD should be praised.

Additionally, they should not be restricted by Colorado legislative authorities that
restrict them from serving our city and our state, as necessary. Any pending legislation, as was suggested by local news, that would limit their ability to keep citizens safe should be shelved now.

Willie Breazell

Colorado Springs

This is selective outrage

Colorado’s attorney general claims Donald Trump’s Space Command decision violates state “sovereignty.” That argument collapses on contact with reality.

The Pentagon itself ranked Huntsville, Alabama first. President Joe Biden overrode that recommendation and kept Space Command in Colorado — a political decision by any honest definition. Now the AG pretends only one side is allowed to politicize federal power.

States do not have “sovereignty” over military bases. If they did, every BRAC decision for the last 50 years would be unconstitutional. Federal commands are located by federal authority — not by which state files the most dramatic lawsuit.

Even worse, this legal stunt actively undermines Colorado Springs by antagonizing the Department of Defense while our own city and county leaders beg the state to stop.

This isn’t constitutional principle. It’s selective outrage — and taxpayers are funding it.

Jeffery Chandler

Colorado Springs

Right to peaceably assemble

This is not necessarily an original thought, but it is common knowledge to those who profess to understand our Constitution. You do not have the right to protest in the manner that we now see across the nation. I say again — there is no such right-period! You do have the right to peaceably assemble. Emphasis on the word peaceably.

That would mean carrying signs and voicing an opinion. It does not mean blocking traffic, impeding others’ ability to use the sidewalk, screaming obscenities, throwing rocks, bottles of frozen water, or throwing fireworks at duly constituted sworn officers doing
their duty under the law that we all live under! Moreover, impeding federal officers from carrying out their duties is against the law. Elected officials who not only encourage such behavior and enable it
are guilty of encouraging insurrection and should be arrested.

Each one of them raised their hand and took an oath to the US Constitution and agreed to uphold the law.

Len Bentley

Colorado Springs

Trade good, tariffs bad

I took my first economics course in the fall of 1962. At the opening class the professor said that 90% of Americans were economically illiterate. I thought, wow, I’m going to learn something important here. Subsequently I took more economics classes in my undergraduate and graduate studies.

The message has always been the same. “Trade Good -Tariffs Bad.” This month the Kiel Institute, a prestigious German thinktank, published a paper on the efficacy of American tariffs. Their findings were “Trade Good – Tariffs Bad.”

The first shoe to drop: $200 billion flowed into the U.S. treasury. That doesn’t sound too bad. The other shoe: 4% of it came from foreign exporters, 96% came from U.S. citizens and importers.

Welcome to your new consumption tax folks. The report went on to further find that foreign exporters did not lower their prices, instead they shipped less to the U.S. and looked for new markets.

The result? U.S. importers have narrower margins, U.S. consumers pay higher prices, and U.S. global influence, leadership, and dependability has further declined. Conclusion: “Trade Good- Tariffs Bad.”

Sam Gould

Divide