Gas-industry report claims wind-energy standards lead to pollution (Denver)

A new report from Colorado's natural gas industry says increased use of wind energy indirectly results in raised pollution levels produced by some coal-fired power plants along the Front Range.

Critics say the report, released Monday, is flawed.

The report recommends curbing the use of wind energy during the next one or two years to levels that match power output at existing natural gas-fired power plants -- and building more natural gas plants in the long term.

The report -- titled "How Less Became More: Wind, Power and Unintended Consequences in the Colorado Energy Market" -- was done by Bentek Energy LLC, an Evergreen-based consulting company, for the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, a trade group for the Rocky Mountain oil and gas industry.

Initial findings from the report came out in March.

The report may have national implications, as more states require increasing the use of renewable energy resources such as the wind and the sun, and as Congress contemplates a national renewable energy goal. The report's authors said its conclusions about Colorado were mirrored in an analysis they did of wind power use, power plant operations and emissions levels in Texas.

Read the full story in the Denver Business Journal.