Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) have been a staple energy policy in the state of Colorado since 2004. While there has been a steady increase to the RPS percentages over the years, there have been several points where this policy has been significantly contested. This paper explores the political decision making of the two largest electricity producers in the state, Xcel Energy and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, to determine at what points that the costs of legislation exceeded the costs of opposition for those two organizations. Using this information, the paper explores the implications these political battles have on characterizing Colorado as a state with renewable path dependency and renewable policy feedback. / Master of Arts / Since 2004, Colorado has enacted several successful laws to increase renewable energy use within the state. However, in recent years these laws have failed to achieve their goals. By analyzing the two largest producers of electricity in the state, Xcel Energy and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, this paper tries to answer what parts of the policies were too costly for the organizations to accept. Using this information, this project concludes that the current renewable energy policies are unlikely to be repealed in the future, but there is some evidence to suggest that the rate of renewable energy policy enactment may decrease.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/110431 |
| Date | 03 June 2022 |
| Creators | Rivera, Alex M. |
| Contributors | Political Science, Scerri, Andrew Joseph, Binev, Binio S., Schenk, Todd |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Coverage | Colorado, United States |
| Rights | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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