COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — A bill introduced at the state Capitol earlier this year aimed at giving utilities like Colorado Springs Utilities an extension to meet clean energy goals is likely heading for some changes.
The bipartisan legislation, despite being introduced on the first day of the 2026 session, has not been heard in committee. The session is more than halfway through.
Senator Marc Snyder (D-Manitou Springs) is one of the prime sponsors of the bill, and while the bill has not been scheduled for a committee hearing he said progress is still being made.
“There's been an awful lot of good faith negotiations going on up here with the governor's office, the governor's energy office, a lot of the environmental groups are all involved, and, you know, they're really trying to come up with a path forward,” Snyder said.
Colorado Springs Utilities has said meeting the state’s clean energy goals has come with challenges, saying there would be risks to affordability and reliability. It’s asking for an extension to close down the Ray Nixon Power Plant, a coal-fired plant in Fountain.
Springs Utilities said it notified the state of its challenges in meeting the clean energy goals in 2025.
The community-owned utility responded to News5’s request for an on-camera interview with the following statement:
“Last year, Colorado Springs Utilities notified the state of Colorado that we would need to defer the retirement of our Ray Nixon plant to avoid reliability impacts on our system and to protect our community from rate increases. We provided the initial notification in January 2025, and a more detailed notification followed in March 2025. We have remained engaged in active conversations with Colorado policymakers on this issue since then. We are grateful to the sponsors of SB26-022, and are hopeful that ongoing conversations around this measure will result in a retirement pathway for Nixon that ensures we can achieve our long-term emission reduction targets in a way that protects system reliability and customer affordability.”
The Ray Nixon plant is currently mandated to retire in 2029. Sen. Snyder said the legislation will now likely focus on an extension of a few years past that.
“I think there are some parts of it that seem to be pretty well agreed upon. So now the bill has an aspiration of closing the Nixon plant by December 31 2032,” said Snyder. “There are some conditions. If that proves to be too aggressive or they can't come up with the right mix of energy, if they meet some of these conditions and qualify, the plant could stay open as late as 2034, but that is a drop-dead date.”
Snyder said he would also like to see quarterly reports made by Colorado Springs Utilities to see how it’s meeting benchmarks for the renewable energy goals. Negotiations are still ongoing.
“I think we're going to get to a good place,” Snyder said, “everybody seems cautiously optimistic. You know, sometimes the best negotiated settlement is one that nobody loves, but everybody can live with, and that would be a good outcome in this case.”
This southeast Colorado reservoir completely dried out, taking away one of the best recreation spots
All that’s left of the Two Buttes Reservoir is a scattering of lifeless buoys, a rusty lawn chair, empty beer cans, and a number of fishing lures that have fallen into the water over the years.
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