For Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, the Republican crackdown on clean energy isn’t a setback — it’s an excuse to hit the accelerator.
Polis, a two-term Democrat, directed state agencies in August to speed up development of clean energy projects before federal tax credits expire. Other blue states, including California and Arizona, have since mirrored that approach in the aftermath of the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill.
“With the federal government pulling back on work to reduce energy costs and increase reliability, it’s more important than ever before for states to step up,” Polis told POLITICO’s E&E News in an interview Wednesday. “We want to make sure that Colorado remains at the forefront of low cost, reliable clean energy.”
Polis committed his once coal-heavy state to a grid that uses 100 percent renewable energy by 2040 and to zeroing out economywide greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
State studies have shown that it’s achievable using existing technologies — specifically, renewables with a small amount of natural gas as back-up power. But if clean energy projects get more expensive with lost federal tax credits, supply chain shortages and tariffs, that could hamper the state’s sprint to phase out fossil fuels.
Colorado’s effort to streamline and speed up permitting appears to be paying off. With state backing, Xcel Energy, the state’s largest utility, is expediting the acquisition of 4,000 megawatts of clean energy to take advantage of tax credits before they expire. For comparison, Xcel has about 6,200 MW of generation in Colorado.
“Time is money, and even without expiring tax credits or tariffs, lengthy approval processes still add costs to projects,” Polis said. “This was a good excuse to do what we fundamentally wanted to do anyway, which is reduce processing time and speed up approval.”
The coal debate
Polis said he worries about one aspect of Trump’s agenda: forcing coal plants to stay open.
The state is set to close its remaining six coal plants by 2031. The Trump administration so far hasn’t ordered any of those to stay open, as it has with generators in Michigan and Pennsylvania. But the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rejecting a state clean air plan, asserting that the planned coal closures could hurt reliability.
Polis says he’s closely monitoring the “rumors” about the administration’s coal push. Forcing the plants to stay open, he said, would “absolutely add cost to Colorado ratepayers” because other sources of energy are cheaper.
There is one exception. Colorado Springs utility officials have requested that a coal plant in the city stay open past its planned 2029 closure because the cost of replacing it with renewables may be too high without federal incentives. Polis told me there’s a “good case” for extending the plant’s life.
Given the national headwinds, does Polis still think Colorado’s ambitious climate targets are in range? An interim goal to get to 80 percent renewable energy by 2030, he said, is well in hand. (In 2024, renewables accounted for 43 percent of the state’s electricity generation.)
Beyond that, he’s taking a long view.
“Where we are in 2040 and 2050, that will probably depend more on where the next president and the next president after that are on policy than anything happening right now,” Polis said.
