U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans introduced new legislation to create a new federal standard that state regulatory entities must consider when making policy focusing on energy reliability, encouraging affordability for ratepayers.
This new legislation, the State Planning for Reliability and Affordability Act, was introduced to the House of Representatives on May 1. The act creates a new federal standard that state regulatory entities, such as the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, will need to consider energy reliability and ratepayer affordability when developing policies.
“Colorado’s overbearing regulations are causing energy bills to skyrocket, with no end in sight,” Evans said in a news release. “This legislation puts Coloradans first by placing a check on the suffocating regulations that continue to make hardworking families foot the bill for their out-of-touch policies.”
The act will implement a new regulation that will require state regulatory entities to ensure that measures are in place to provide reliable energy. Reliable energy, in this case, is defined as a method of energy generation that can provide continuous energy for at least 30 days.
Should this act pass through the House and Senate and across the president’s desk, state regulatory entities will have two years to find a means of securing fuel to generate reliable energy or to establish a facility capable of producing reliable energy. As stated in Evans’s release on the act, this would help to combat a pivot away from the fossil fuel industry, one of the leading industries in Weld County.
Another driver of this legislation is recent polling data conducted by PowerLines, a national organization aiming to modernize the utility regulatory system and lower utility bills. The data indicated that as of March 30, electric bills for 64% of Americans increased over the past year, and only 3% went down.
This is coupled with another PowerLines report stating that the average electricity cost has increased by 30% since 2021. According to the 2024 U.S. Census, there are around 80 million Americans who struggle with their utility bills.
Given this, Evans has pushed this piece of legislation in an effort to lower costs for Coloradans while boosting the fossil fuel industry. However, with the act only just being introduced, it could be some time before it becomes law and ratepayers feel the results.
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