Environmental groups are pleased that the plan doesn't rely on certified natural gas and hydrogen, with rebates coming for electric heat pumps.
“Those are not only going to help lower emissions, but they're also going to help improve indoor air quality,” Sarah Tresseder, building electrification field organizer with the Sierra Club, says of those measures. “As an Xcel customer, the bills have been ever-increasing, so it's hopeful we will help prevent some of these skyrocketing gas bills that we're seeing.”
Certified natural gas is fuel made with high standards to prevent methane leaks and other environmental problems but is not a renewable energy source. Xcel originally modeled that electrification incentives would get much higher as time goes on. However, Flicking says the opposite: as the market adjusts, those incentives should be smaller.
Advocates have long argued that gas infrastructure built today will end up as stranded assets in the future, unused before customers finish paying them off as is currently the case with. During deliberations for the clean heat plan, Tresseder says the PUC seemed to understand the economic reasons for focusing on electrifying.
Through spokesperson Tyler Bryant, Xcel says it expects to expand existing efficiency and electrification programs to help Colorado achieve its goal of transforming the state’s energy system into one that is net-zero on carbon emissions.