Posted on 12/22/2025 7:07:03 AM PST by Red Badger
What about propane for rural folks? Do we have to give up gas furnaces and stoves? Who will pay? Will electric bills go way up?
Flames emerge from burners on a natural gas stove, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, in Walpole, Mass. Gas and construction trade groups sued to block New York state’s controversial ban on gas stoves and furnaces in new buildings. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) Credit: AP
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News that Colorado has set hard target dates for an end to burning natural gas in our daily lives prompted many “wait, what?” questions from Colorado Sun readers. And we are here to help.
The Public Utilities Commission approved a “Clean Heat Plan” that calls for the state’s natural gas utilities to cut emissions from delivering and burning natural gas by 41% in the next 10 years, and all natural gas emissions entirely by 2050. We talked to state regulators, clean energy officials and advocates, and consumer groups for answers to your most urgent questions.
Q: What about propane? Many rural and mountain Colorado homes have a propane tank. Must those homes convert to expensive electric heating, hot water and cooking appliances, and if so, who pays?
A: The newly approved plans do not cover propane tanks or propane distributors. They task the big utilities delivering natural gas to homes in pipelines with the mandate to hit the targets. That means Xcel, Atmos Energy and Black Hills Energy. Homes using existing propane tanks are not directly affected, though clean energy advocates still encourage those homeowners to seek rebates and other help in converting to more efficient electrical appliances that will be cheaper to operate.
Q: As a homeowner, do I have to do something about my gas appliances or furnace?
A: The new rules are not aimed at homeowners. They are requirements for the utilities. The utilities will be the ones planning internal changes and consumer and business incentives to both limit harmful methane leaks and convince people to switch to electric appliances. Utilities will still be delivering natural gas to consumers, but they must now start taking concrete steps toward gradually reducing use and emissions. If a utility believes it will take hundreds of millions of dollars in rebate incentives to get an adequate number of installed electric appliances, thereby cutting fossil fuel emissions, they would also have to get that spending and potential rate increases approved by the PUC. Under current rules, no one is showing up at your door to rip out a gas water heater against your will.
Q: If I am interested in making appliance changes but don’t have the capital to do it, can I get help?
A: Yes, from multiple sources. In fact, the Colorado Energy Office recently announced new rebates aimed at low- and middle-income households in mobile or manufactured homes. Each utility also has pools of money for rebates for electric appliances. Nonprofits and government agencies often have appliance and weatherization programs that can provide thousands of dollars for projects. The energy office recommends you start here.
Q: Won’t the transformation to all-electrical energy overwhelm current generating capacity, and also raise my electric bills?
A: Certainly the growth in electrical demands — from a host of new EVs plugged in, to giant power-sucking data centers for AI, to electric heat pumps and tankless water heaters — will put more strain on Colorado’s power generation. Utilities are moving to add more generating capacity. For now generation capacity is adequate but tight. That’s why when Xcel’s Comanche 3 coal-fired unit went down, the PUC approved keeping Unit 2 running even though it was supposed to close Dec. 31.
Some groups — not just environmental advocates, but businesses as well — question whether utilities are overstating electric demand, and whether they’ve properly managed the power plants they’ve already got. Expect more questions and more reports on whether the growth in solar and wind clean power sources can match growing demand.
As for rising costs?
“I think people have an assumption that if we’re adding new load to the electric system, that that is going to add a lot of cost. And in fact, that can be true, but it isn’t always true,” Colorado Energy Office director Will Toor said.
He cites studies showing that even without growth in electrical demand, there are fixed costs required in coming decades that would raise consumer electric rates. Those unavoidable costs include a vastly upgraded power line system throughout Colorado to link new solar and wind farms to the grid, as well as hardening transmission lines against growing wildfire risk. If demand is stagnant, then current consumers will have to pay those extra unavoidable costs. If demand grows in a planned and controlled way, Toor said, then the new consumers will help pay for those fixed costs and limit price increases for all.
Q: Can the electrical system handle the planned increase in demand if we give up fossil fuels for cars and homes?
A: It will take planning and growth of clean resources, but the demand news is not all bad, Toor explained. For example, people with EVs tend to plug their cars in the garage overnight, when overall electrical demand drops. Moreover, Colorado is currently a “summer peaking” state, meaning more demand spikes happen in high summer heat when people come home in the afternoon and turn the air conditioning on. If installation of electric home heat pumps and water heaters means more electrical demand in cold winter months, much of that capacity already existed for the summer spikes.
Spreading out the changeover from natural gas through 2035 and 2050 targets, Toor noted, means demand will grow more gradually.
“You still need to make some distribution level investments,” he said. “But when it comes to sort of the big transmission and generation, we’ve got excess capacity in the winter.”
Q: If everything in the Clean Heat plan is so reasonable, why did two state agencies want the timetable for the natural gas switchover to be less aggressive?
A: The PUC settled on a 41% target in cutting natural gas-related emissions by 2035. Environmental groups wanted at least 50% out of the system by then. The energy office and the Air Pollution Control Division, meanwhile, argued for a 30% target for the interim 2035 year.
“The 41% target, from our perspective, is a pretty challenging target for utilities. We certainly hope that utilities get there. I think we thought that 30% was probably more realistic,” Toor said. Reaching the more aggressive target may prompt the utilities to seek more rate increases to pay for their appliance rebates and system changes.
That said, Toor added, the PUC may have a more comprehensive view of cost pressures. Maintaining natural gas systems and extending them to new houses and buildings also require major investments from utilities, Toor noted. Environmental groups call those “stranded costs,” for example paying hundreds of millions of dollars for a pipeline to deliver less and less natural gas each year as the emissions cuts come into play. The utilities’ ability to now avoid those natural gas investments could free up money to pay for the switch to electricity.
“I’m confident that they will be able to strike the appropriate balance going forward,” Toor said.
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Corrections:
This story was updated Dec. 10, 2025, at 6:58 p.m. to correctly describe the Public Utilities Commission's rationale for allowing the coal-fired Comanche 2 unit to continue operating beyond its Dec. 31 shutdown date.
Type of Story: Q&A
An interview to provide a relevant perspective, edited for clarity and not fully fact-checked.
“Heat pumps have outdoor temp problems “
Cold Weather Performance
Standard Models: May rely on backup heat (like electric strips or a furnace) below 25-30°F.
Cold-Climate Models (e.g., ENERGY STAR): Must work effectively at 5°F and maintain significant capacity (e.g., 70%+) at 5°F to qualify.
Hyper-Heating (H2i): Can provide 100% heating capacity down to 5°F, with guaranteed operation to -13°F or even -5°F (H2i Plus).
https://www.google.com/search?q=modern+heat+pump+temperature+range
“and are expensive. Much more than a simple gas furnace.”
If you have no need for A/C cooling.
’ more efficient electrical appliances that will be cheaper to operate.”
Someone should go to jail for fraud. Maybe lots of people. The “clean energy” scammers think the readers don’t know what a BTU is. Here’s the shorthand. 1kwh of electricity is 3400 BTU. 1 hundred cubic feet of natural gas is about 100,000 BTU, or equivalent to 30 KWH of electricity, and also about .8 gallons of gasoline (118k BTU/gallon). Wholesale natural gas is about 40 cents per 100,000 BTU (Henry Hub $4 per 1mm BTU or 1000 cubic feet more or less).
https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/natural-gas-price
The delivered price of gas (including taxes, delivery, various flimflam surcharges of course) is less than triple the Henry Hub price, in most states or $1.20 per 100,000 BTU.
https://www.neighborhoodenergyne.com/market-insights/natural-gas-cost-per-therm-the-actual-numbers
So you get the equivalent of 30KWH of electricity for $1.20 or probably less. $1.20/30 is 4 freaking cents per KWH. The average US residential electricity rate is 18 cents per KWH which is 450 percent higher than natural gas.
https://www.electricchoice.com/electricity-prices-by-state/
Bernie Madoff and Sam Bankman Fried and Al Capone are more honest than renewable energy shills.
That’s why they’re doing it.
They’re not stupid. They have an agenda.
“
Check this company out.
66 posted on 12/22/2025, 11:20:47 AM by u”
OMG a battery farm, I wonder where all my money went?
Heat pumps do work, but the one I had installed cost... are you sitting down? $27,000. Heat pumps may be more efficient than electric baseboard, but my cost per KWH is 24 cents, I won’t save money for about 500 years.
“They’re not stupid. They have an agenda.”
Thank you!! It’s dangerous and delusional to think of them as stupid.
“but the one I had installed cost... are you sitting down? $27,000. “
That must be some system! Rebates?
The Colorado demo-commies are evil, and they’re commies, but I repeat myself. Until the local populace wakes up and takes back control of their government, it will continue. They may want to review the Athens, TN event of last century. It is very, very unlikely the demo-commies got into power honestly. Or have stayed in power honestly.
Natural gas is a blessing ...Who are these clowns?
Democrats................
If you like your gas appliances, you can keep them!! (sorry, no gas for them tho, enjoy deindustrialization).
Cheaper my ass
Yup.
Yup.
“Don’t Californiacate Colorado.”
“Don’t Californiacate Colorado.”
It got Californicated...................
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