Colorado Governor Hides Carbon Tax into His ‘New Energy Economy’

As reported in the Pueblo Chieftan:

Ritter Plan Tied to Phantom Carbon Tax

Ratepayers can’t see it on their bill, and they won’t hear about it from Gov. Bill Ritter. But a central component of his New Energy Economy is a big, hidden energy tax that makes customers pay for the controversial theory of global warming.

In order to make Ritter’s New Energy Economy appear affordable, the Public Utilities Commission allows Xcel Energy to incorporate at least a $20-per-ton carbon tax into the economic models the utility uses to make resource acquisition decisions. The tax is used in the models, and the models dictate spending.

Ritter’s carbon tax is the worst kind of virtual reality because it leaps from the computers to your wallet. Ratepayers cannot see the tax because it is cloaked in the impossibly arcane processes of the PUC.

Legally, the tax is based on House Bill 1164 of 2008, which allows the PUC to “give consideration” to “the risk of higher future costs associated with the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide when it considers utility proposals to acquire resources.”

Colorado Conservation Voters, a group which “works to turn conservation values into Colorado priorities,” bragged: “By giving the PUC the ability to use carbon as a value in resource planning decisions, HB1164 represented the first time that the Colorado General Assembly took a substantive step forwards in giving regulators the tools they need to explicitly address global warming.”

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If Ritter and the state Legislature want to tax Coloradans to pay for global warming, they need to make their case to voters. Anything less is dishonest.

Read the full article here.