If all goes as planned, Xcel Energy is applying for its last federal air-pollution permit for a coal-fired power plant in Colorado.
But environmentalists worry that is a big “if” as long as the Trump administration is in power, and now they are asking the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to include the Comanche Generating Station’s projected closure date of Jan. 1, 2031, in the Pueblo power plant’s latest Title V air permit.
They hope putting the date in a permit that needs Environmental Protection Agency approval will guarantee that Xcel, the largest utility company operating in Colorado, will shutter its last coal-fired power plant in the state by that deadline.
“I really want to emphasize the need to ensure that these retirement dates, which Xcel has committed to and everybody has agreed to, are established and set in stone via this Title V air permit,” said Jeremy Nichols, a senior advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity. “Right now, the federal government has launched an unprecedented assault on states like Colorado who are trying to do their part to confront the climate crisis and protect clean air and to enable a transition from coal to clean energy.”
Colorado’s utility companies have been planning for nearly two decades to shutter their coal-burning power plants and transition to cleaner alternatives, including natural gas, solar and wind power. Comanche is the largest coal-burning power plant in the state, and two of its three operating units still create electricity from coal.
Xcel is on track to shutter Comanche’s Unit 2 in September and remains committed to closing the plant’s Unit 3, which generates 750 megawatts of electricity, by January 2031, said Michelle Aguayo, a Xcel Colorado spokeswoman. Unit 1 is already closed.
“We continue to make significant progress towards our emission reduction goals approved by the state, which would require us to retire our coal units by (the end of) 2030,” Aguayo wrote in a statement. “We’re working with the administration and our states to continue delivering customers safe, clean, reliable energy while keeping our customers’ bills as low as possible.”
But President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin want the United States to continue burning coal, saying it is needed now more than ever to fuel a growing demand for electricity. That demand is being sparked, in part, by a growing reliance on artificial intelligence, which consumes massive amounts of power.
In April, Trump signed executive orders aimed at boosting the industry, calling it “America’s beautiful, clean coal,” and vowing to prevent states from curtailing its use. As part of that push, the president has ordered utilities in Michigan and Pennsylvania to keep their coal plants open even when some were on the verge of shutting down.
But Colorado officials pushed back, with Gov. Jared Polis calling the president’s orders “federal overreach.” By eliminating coal-fired power plants, Colorado will inch closer to meeting its goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and addressing climate change.
Now, though, Polis’ regulators are being asked to put that commitment in writing.
“We are exploring if we would have legal authority to include an enforceable retirement date for Comanche’s Unit 3 coal plant in the draft Title V operating permit — and what exactly that would mean,” said Kate Malloy, an Air Pollution Control Division spokeswoman.
Coal is a dirty substance, emitting more carbon dioxide than other energy sources and accelerating climate change. Coal also contains multiple other contaminants such as mercury, sulfur dioxide, fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide that are released into the air and are a threat to human health.
It also leaves a toxic byproduct called coal ash, which contains arsenic, lithium, selenium, cobalt and other metals, that must be dumped into landfills in the state. Millions of tons of coal ash are buried in Colorado, and at least three sites have been documented as leaking lithium and selenium into groundwater.
Even though Xcel plans to shutter Comanche’s Unit 3 within five years, it still needed to renew its Title V air permit, the document that details how much pollution the company is allowed to spew into the air.
Under the proposed permit, the amount of pollution coming from Comanche would be reduced by thousands of tons of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants, said Carrisa Money, the state health department’s Title V operating permits unit manager.
The permits are supposed to be renewed every five years. Xcel’s was last renewed in 2018.
Xcel submitted its renewal application in 2022, and now the Colorado health department is on the verge of approving it.
The state’s Air Quality Control Commission, which sets state air pollution regulations, on Tuesday held a public hearing on the permit application at which five people asked the state to do its part to slow climate change. Another 54 people submitted letters, most of which asked for the closure date to be included in the permit.
“We want to be responsive to the feedback we have received and do what’s best for Colorado, so we are working to evaluate this issue,” Malloy said in an emailed statement. “Once we have an answer, we will respond to public comments as appropriate.”
Utility companies like Xcel plan for years to shutter power plants as they replace coal with cleaner power generation. And they set goals with approvals from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, which is responsible for making sure there is enough power surging through the grid to keep people’s lights on at an affordable price.
Malloy noted that the Comanche Unit 3 retirement date is enforceable through the company’s clean energy plans, which are required by state law and were submitted with Xcel’s electric resource plan to the PUC. The Air Pollution Control Division supports clean energy plans by verifying data and sharing them for public review and input, she said.
“Even if a federally enforceable permit condition were not on the table, the state does still have oversight and enforcement authority for coal plant retirement dates,” Malloy said.
But that hasn’t stopped Trump from making his demands. So Nichols believes it is necessary for the state to put the closure date in the Title V permit.
“We urge Colorado to create a bulwark, a defense, so to speak, against the federal government’s attacks on our climate progress and our progress in transitioning away from coal,” Nichols said during Tuesday’s public hearing on the permit. “I think that emphasizes the need to find perhaps more creative ways to ensure that the Comanche coal-fired power plant retirement dates are fully set in stone through this Title V permit.”
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