Colorado Coal

When it comes to analyzing Colorado's energy sources, the proverbial picture is worth a thousand words. Lured by abundant supplies and cheap prices of the past, Colorado has gotten hooked on coal.

Currently, Colorado has 13 coal plants which emit 47,200,000 tons of C02 emissions per year, ranking Colorado 23rd among power-related carbon emissions for all US states. So we aren't the worst in the pack, but it's clear we have abundant renewable resources and could do far more to reduce the amount of electricity we produce using coal. By 2020, Colorado greenhouse gas emissions are project to reach 71% above 1990 levels.

Colorado Coal Plants

Xcel has announced its intention to retire two of them, while forging ahead with plans to build a new unit in Pueblo. Meanwhile, other state utilities - such as Tri-State - still have new coal projects on the drawing boards.

Electricity Generation and Coal Use in Colorado

82 % of the state's electricity is produced by coal fired power plants, which released 36,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide(CO2), 132,000 tons of NOx, and 86,000 tons of SO2 in 1999.

In Colorado, total CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants are approximately 15 times greater than emissions from natural gas-fired power plants.

Due to Colorado's reliance on coal, its CO2 emission factor of 1.93 lb/kWh is relatively high compared to the U.S. average of1.34 lb/kWh.

Electrical power plants are also major contributors to releases of air toxics in the state (31 percent of total reported in 2000), particularly for mercury and dioxin.

Overall, electric utilities were responsible for 47.5 percent of the CO2 equivalent emissions in Colorado in 1990. Most of the 1,126,000 MM Btus of fuel consumed in Colorado in 1999 were used for electricity generation(34 percent) and transportation (32 percent).

When coal is burned, it emits 70 percent more carbon dioxide per Btu of energy produced than natural gas.