The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

A bill to create a grant program for microgrids, sponsored by Representative Rod Pelton, R-Cheyenne Wells, recently won a 11-1 vote from the House Energy & Environment Committee.

House Bill 1013 sets up the Microgrids for Community Resilience Grant Program in the Department of Local Affairs for rural communities that lose electricity during a wildfire or blizzard.

The microgrid would be run by a co-op, such as a rural electric association, to provide emergency service to selected community resources when the electricity goes out, Pelton explained to the committee.

Co-sponsor Rep. Marc Snyder, D-Colorado Springs, added that they’re hoping the Federal government will put money into these programs, to bolster the $5 million in general funds (income and sales tax) the bill seeks. 

The bill would give a preference to utilities that are attempting to switch to renewable energy, Snyder explained.

That didn’t appear to sit well with Rep. Perry Will, R-New Castle, who raised a concern about awarding grants only to microgrids based on non-fossil fuel energy, stating the grants should go where the needs are, regardless of energy source. Snyder said that the Governor’s office wanted to go with only non-fossil fuel microgrids. “We don’t have the technology” to go strictly with renewables, he said.

“My understanding is that [large storage] batteries would be an option” available under the resiliency program, Pelton said. “We don’t want to tie everything down in statute” that could preclude new technologies, he added.

How far would $5 million go? asked Rep. Brianna Titone, D-Arvada. According to Snyder, each microgrid program would probably cost seven figures. “This won’t be the amount of money to solve these issues in rural electric or small municipal” utilities, he said, which is why they’re hoping federal dollars will also become available.

Tim Coleman of the Colorado Rural Electric Association, which represents 22 distribution co-ops with service to 1.5 million people, said his association supports the bill. During extreme weather events and natural disasters, microgrids can deliver electricity to a central resource, such as a hospital, law enforcement facility or fire department. Many rural communities lack the resources to implement projects such as this, he added.

Other witnesses said microgrid energy would cover those emergency electrical needs from four hours to four days, depending on the source. 

The bill was sent to the House Appropriations Committee for further action.

Another start-up grant program won approval from the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee on Feb. 10. The grant program is intended to finance groundwater reductions in the Republican River and Rio Grande basin. That could include buying and retiring irrigation wells and/or irrigated acreage.

Senate Bill 28 doesn’t finance the grant program; that money, according to Senator Cleave Simpson, R-Alamosa, is expected to come from the Federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars awarded to the State. That fund, known as the economic recovery and relief cash fund, has $848 million available, to be spent by Dec. 31, 2024. 

The bill comes from the interim Water Resources Review Committee, which also includes Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, the co-sponsor of SB 28. The bill was endorsed by the Colorado Water Congress last month.

The grant program is intended to help with compact compliance on the Republican River and with aquifer recoveries and maintaining the aquifers in the Rio Grande, Simpson said. 

The circumstances are challenging for these communities, Simpson added. The bill has the potential to swing the pendulum to make a big difference, due to those federal dollars, he said.

Sen. Kerry Donovan, D-Vail, the Committee Chair, said she recommended $150 million for groundwater projects, with $50 million suggested for SB 28. 

Sonnenberg said even $150 million may not be enough just for those two basins, with commodity prices where they are, such as corn at $6 per bushel. He’s said he’s heard support from the Governor’s office for $100 million. 

Simpson said he asked the economic task force for $80 million from ARPA, which he said should meet Federal guidelines, with more money potentially from the federal infrastructure bill. 

David Robbins of Denver, general counsel for both the Rio Grande and Republican River conservation districts, told the committee that the groundwater issue on the Republican is compact compliance with Nebraska and Kansas. Colorado agreed to withdraw 25,000 acres by 2029 under a three-state resolution signed in 2016. Despite spending $100 million, the district is having a terrible time meeting the state-mandated responsibility, Robbins told the committee.

The Rio Grande’s issue is being driven by a need for sustainability, Robbins said. Because of commodity prices and amount of land, about 40,000 acres that have to come out of production, local water users have not been financially able to get the job done.

Both districts have deadlines of 2029 to meet. If they fail, the state engineer will shut down wells in the basins, a dramatic and difficult consequence for both basins, Robbins said.

The bill would set up a fund to help pay for withdrawing those acres, Robbins explained.

Aaron Sprague, of Holyoke, treasurer of the Republican River Conservation District, told the committee that fees have been assessed for irrigated acres since the district was created in 2004 to deal with compact compliance. Since 2006, they’re retired 42,000 acres for compact compliance, at a cost of $150 million. 

The bill will help deal with the requirements under the 2016 resolution that Sprague said moved the goalposts for the district, Sprague said. “We thought we were in compliance but need to retire another 25,000 acres,” a huge burden to farmers as well as a risk to water certainty. 

“We look forward to the introduction of more certainty to the basin,” which he said he hoped would be a result of SB 28.

The measure won unanimous approval from the committee and now heads to the full Senate for debate.