Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed two major bills supporting renewable energy this week, keeping with his theme of a “New Energy Economy” for the state.

The first was HB 1281, which expands the state’s renewable energy standard by doubling the goal to 20 percent of all resources by 2020 for big utilities. It also includes a goal of 10 percent renewables by 2020 for small utilities and caps the implementation cost for customers of the big utilities to 2 percent of their monthly electric bill. Rural electric associations have a 3-to-1 credit to invest in solar energy.

The next bill, SB 100, makes it easier to build or expand transmission lines to move wind power from the rural areas where it’s generated to the populated urban areas where it’s needed. Utilities can recover the construction costs from customers before the power line is operational.

Governor Ritter explained the bills’ significance:

"These new laws will improve our economic security, our environmental security and our national security. They will breathe new economic life into rural Colorado. They will create new jobs, and they will say to the rest of the world, 'Colorado is open for business in what will be one of the most important industries of the 21st century.'"

According to the Denver Business Journal, the bills had the support of lawmakers, energy providers, and renewable energy advocates.

Denver Business Journal