Renewable-energy mandate could create 23,000 jobs in Colorado
Environmental advocates supporting a bill in the state Legislature that would require Xcel Energy to get 30 percent of its power from renewable sources released a report Tuesday saying the higher mandate could create 23,000 jobs in the state’s solar industry over the next 10 years.
The study, “Investing in the Sun,” was compiled by Environment Colorado, a Denver-based environmental advocacy group, and Vote Solar, a San Francisco-based grassroots organization focused on solar power. The study is available here.
The bill — HB 1001, sponsored by Rep. Max Tyler, D-Lakewood, and Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village — is aimed at Colorado’s two investor-owned utilities: Minneapolis-based Xcel (NYSE: XEL) and Black Hills Energy in southeastern Colorado, a unit of Rapid City, S.D.-based Black Hills Corp. (NYSE: BKH)
The bill would raise the standard for using renewable energy from the current 20 percent minimum by 2020 to 30 percent by 2020.
Read the full report in the Denver Business Journal.
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