The Gazette has the perfect Colorado energy story: Colorado Springs Utilities wants to charge rooftop solar customers more, but first it ran focus groups to figure out which version of the kick in the teeth they might “support.”
That is modern government in one glorious little sewer pipe: don’t just raise the fee. Workshop the feelings. Massage the language. Locate the pain point where citizens stop yelling and start calling their mugging “transparent stakeholder engagement.”
Colorado Springs Utilities is taking another run at changing its net metering program, which credits nearly 11,000 customers for excess rooftop solar power sent back to the grid. Staffers say the current setup creates a growing gap between solar and non-solar bills because solar homes produce power when demand is lower, then use credits during peak evening hours when power costs more.
That argument is not crazy. Power at noon and power at 6 p.m. are not the same product, no matter how many bumper stickers insist electrons have pronouns and good intentions.
But the way this is being handled is peak bureaucratic theater. Utilities already tried a demand charge last year for customers using power between 5 and 9 p.m., and City Council narrowly stripped it out after solar customers and providers showed up hot. So now the utility is back with surveys, focus groups, and a fresh hunt for “buy-in,” which is bureaucrat for “how do we make you swallow this without throwing chairs?”
Energy strategy supervisor Brittany Harrison said solar customers have “a very deep belief” that they’re contributing to personal and community goals, and Utilities wants to give them “autonomy to make choices.”
Beautiful. Nothing says autonomy like a government-owned utility studying exactly which new charge you’ll hate least before handing it to the City Council for a vote.
This whole thing is a three-car pileup of Colorado energy religion. Solar customers spent thousands of dollars installing panels and are understandably annoyed when the city starts talking like they’re freeloaders in Patagonia vests. Non-solar customers don’t want to be quietly billed for somebody else’s roof jewelry. Utilities wants to keep the grid functioning without taking the full political punch. And the politicians want to encourage green energy while pretending math is an oil-company conspiracy.
Utilities CEO Travas Deal put the issue bluntly: rooftop solar is fine for your own use, but the problem starts when people try to “monetize it based off of other customers paying for it.”
There’s the live wire. Net metering sounds like rugged independence until the bill math starts wandering across the street and knocking on your neighbor’s door.
Meanwhile, Gov. Jared Polis just signed House Bill 1007 allowing portable plug-in solar panels — balcony solar, basically — because Colorado’s energy policy is now “plug random panels into the wall and trust the vibe,” provided everyone says “safety standards” three times and sprinkles nonprofit glitter over it.
Solar advocates say plug-in panels could lower bills and make solar easier to access. Maybe. The article notes a single plug-in panel may not produce enough excess power to matter for net metering, and anyone who wants to connect to the grid may need other devices anyway. So we have achieved the Colorado policy trifecta: easier entry, murkier costs, and a future committee meeting where everyone pretends nobody saw this coming.
Here’s the Colorado reality check: normal people are already getting crushed by housing, groceries, insurance, taxes, fees, utility bills, and every “small monthly charge” invented by people who never met a pocket they didn’t want to pick. The focus group found non-solar customers might tolerate $2 a month to support solar benefits, but support dropped as it approached $5.
Of course it did. Because Coloradans know how this scam breeds. Today it’s two bucks. Tomorrow it’s five. Then it’s a “grid modernization rider,” a “climate resilience adjustment,” and a $47 line item called “Because Shut Up, That’s Why.”
Colorado Springs Utilities may have a real cost problem. Solar customers may have a real fairness complaint. Non-solar customers may have a real subsidy gripe. But nobody should miss the larger joke: Colorado’s ruling energy geniuses spent years telling everyone to electrify, solarize, decarbonize, incentivize, and feel morally superior — and now they’re shocked to discover the grid still has to work after sunset.
Congratulations, Colorado. We saved the planet so hard we had to convene a focus group to decide who gets billed for the flashlight.
Just Stop It
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