January 28, 2009 07:12 PM UTC

Intense Lobbying Campaign Targets Energy Bill

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• by: Colorado Pols

We’re hearing stories about rather intense pressure being exerted on state legislative Democrats in opposition to what looks to us anyway (tell us if we’re wrong) like a routine renewable energy bill.

Senate Bill 051, introduced by Sen. Morgan Carroll and Rep. Claire Levy, would facilitate more access to existing renewable energy project financing programs created by Amendment 37, with an eye toward increased access to financing by consumers and small business. The biggest fiscal impact we see from our read is an increased allocation of state money as collateral for project financing–some risk would be inherent to this, of course, but defaults on this kind of project remain low in Colorado compared to other areas of the nation from what we’re told.

But it appears that Xcel Energy, other energy companies and co-ops in the state, and banks are very unhappy about this bill. Lobbyists have reportedly been working overtime to kill it–Xcel has retained former chief of staff for Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, the notoriously hard-nosed Mary Alice Mandarich to spearhead the campaign against the bill. Banks are presumably in opposition because the bill would expand allowable financiers to include credit unions.

There are a lot of bills out there, some more benign than others, some that pass quietly and some that make a very large crater. This one seems pretty uncontroversial; it’s come onto our radar mostly because of this unexpectedly ferocious industry opposition. More often than not, that tells a story all by itself.