The Colorado Renewable Energy Standard requires that investor-owned power companies must produce 30 percent of their power from "renewable energy" in fewer than nine years. Not to be outdone, some "clean energy" advocates assert Boulder can have 80 percent renewable by 2025. Trying to legislate such fantasies has real world consequences: Renewable energy is expensive -- more than double the cost of using natural gas or coal. It is available only intermittently -- Germany, an aggressive wind energy jurisdiction, reports a capacity utilization rate of just 15.5 percent during 2010. Making energy more expensive and less reliable will hurt Colorado`s economy.
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