Xcel’s Clean Heat Plan should protect our health from gas pollutants.
Lauren Swain: coordinator@psrcolorado.org
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Clean Heat Plan Background
Legislative Mandate: Every large utility in Colorado must submit its own Clean Heat Plan to the PUC required by passage of legislation: SB21-264.
Westword interview Xcel Submits Clean Heat Plan to Reduce Emissions, More Work to Come
Important Analysis - Colorado Sun: Opinion: Xcel’s Clean Heat Plan is less than meets the eye
Report from Western Resource Advocates laying out a roadmap for Xcel to meet Colorado's new Clean Heat Standard with only Demand Side Management and building electrification: Path to Pollution Free Buildings
PSR Colorado (Physicians for Social Responsibility)
Responds to Xcel Clean Heat Plan Draft
PSR Colorado (Physicians for Social Responsibility) board members and staff are deeply concerned about Xcel's "Clean Heat Plus", proposal, submitted to the Public Utilities Commission on August 1, as required under SB21-264. Colorado's "Clean Heat" legislation was passed in 2021, setting standards for large gas utilities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the residential heating sector by 4% below 2015 levels by 2025, and by 22% by 2030.
We are disturbed to see that Xcel apparently plans to continue piping various forms of methane gas (aka "natural gas") into the majority of Colorado homes in its service area indefinitely, despite the health, safety, and the climate damage that methane production and combustion causes. Building electrification and Demand Side Management (energy efficiency), the least polluting and most sustainable, equitable and cost-effective emission reduction strategies, constitute only 46% of Xcel's Clean Heat Plus portfolio, while Xcel's plan relies on "certified natural gas" and carbon offsets, strategies not included in the legislation, as means of achieving roughly one-third of its purported emissions reductions. Disturbingly, Xcel's Clean Heat proposal also includes hydrogen blending, a hazardous, unproven, and costly strategy that increases the hazards and harms of burning gas in homes.
In addition to contributing to heatwaves, fires, drought, and other climate hazards, burning methane in the home exposes residents to nitrogen oxides and other harmful pollutants, and to the ongoing risks of carbon monoxide poisoning, fires, and explosions — especially in low income households with old appliances and poor ventilation. If Xcel is allowed to bill ratepayers for its emission reductions, it must broaden access to energy-efficient electric heat pumps, the healthy, safe alternative to burning methane that lowers energy bills and provides affordable cooling as temperatures rise with climate disruption. Continued reliance on methane aggravates current financial, health, and environmental inequities by disproportionately impacting communities of color with higher energy costs and hazardous indoor air pollutants that lead to larger healthcare bills, as well as missed work and school. The PUC should reject Xcel's false solutions and require them to fulfill the intent of the Clean Heat legislation, i.e. protecting Coloradans from the health and climate threats imposed by piping hazardous, polluting methane gas into our homes.
Harv Teitelbaum, board co-chair commented, “Xcel’s Plan minimizes residential electrification by exaggerating its cost and undervaluing subsidies and incentives, while completely ignoring the significant health costs and consequences of not electrifying. On the other hand, Xcel appears completely enamored with the latest fossil fuel industry ruses of “certified” and “recovered methane gas."
Hydrogen Blending Means Escalating Health, Safety, Climate, and Pipeline Risks
- Page 62 - Xcel had over 1200 violations between 2018 and 2021. "In April 2018, the operator was responsible for an explosion that occurred when it was performing standard maintenance on a pipeline, found a gas leak, and the maintenance ruptured the pipeline. The explosion resulted in $151,000 in property damage and surrounding homes were evacuated. Since the 2018 explosion, the Program has documented that Xcel Energy has had a total of 1,247 instances of noncompliance throughout the state, and no penalties have been collected from Xcel Energy for the noncompliance as of March 2023."
Colorado Public Radio report on Xcel's Hydrogen Blending Demonstration Project
PSR Colorado Hydrogen Blending Action Webinar - 8/17/23 - includes policy updates
PSR National Report: Hydrogen Pipe Dreams - Why Burning Hydrogen in Buildings in Bad for Climate and Health - See page 5 for summary
Action Page re Xcel's Hydrogen Blending Plans
American Medical Association
Res. 438 on Hydrogen Blending and 439 on Gas Stoves: See page 16