Colorado Springs resident Jane Ard-Smith told Colorado state lawmakers in April that granting a request by her municipal utility to keep its coal-fired power plant running three years past its planned 2029 retirement date would exacerbate her respiratory health problems.
“Folks with breathing-related ailments like me — we looked forward to breathing a little bit easier,” Ard-Smith testified before the Senate’s Transportation and Energy committee. “I’m concerned that the progress we’ve made as a state and as a city will be thwarted.”
Colorado Springs Utilities, which operates the Ray D. Nixon Power Plant in Fountain, about 85 miles south of Denver, isn’t alone in prolonging the life of its coal-fired plant. Providers that operate two other such plants — one on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains in Craig, and one on the eastern side in Pueblo — did not shut them down on Dec. 31, as planned. State law requires utilities to phase out coal and replace it with cleaner-burning alternatives such as wind and solar…