Xcel Energy shut off power across parts of northern Colorado Friday morning because winds and dry conditions triggered a Red Flag Warning. Colorado Politics says communities near Fort Collins and Loveland along the I-25 corridor were hit around 8 a.m., with gusts forecast up to 60–70 mph.
So, yes, it was windy. And the answer was darkness. That’s the new Colorado service model: “We can’t manage the grid, so we’ll manage you.”
And here’s the pivot: this wasn’t a hurricane, an ice storm, or a once-in-a-century catastrophe. This is wind. In Colorado. In January.
Xcel Preventive Blackout: “Resilience” That Punishes Customers
Xcel preemptively pulled the plug to “reduce wildfire risk,” which sounds responsible until you notice who eats the losses. Families and small businesses get kneecapped while the utility gets to posture as the adult in the room.
That’s not resilience; that’s retreat. Full stop.
Guaranteed Returns, Socialized Pain
Xcel gets guaranteed returns and then leans on regulators to approve rate hikes for grid “investments,” but when conditions get spicy they yank the cord to dodge liability. They launder fragility as “safety” and gaslight customers into thanking them for it.
They monetize failure and call it stewardship. Cute.
Who Pays When Xcel Pulls the Plug?
How many kids missed school or had their day wrecked because the lights went out? How many shops lost sales, canceled appointments, dumped inventory, or shut down early because the system decided winter wind was too much?
We pay with missed wages and spoiled food while executives backstop profits. That’s the scam.
Forecast Weather, Managed Badly
Nobody lost power because of surprise weather or sabotage; this was forecast, and the “plan” was a blackout. Instead of hardening infrastructure or accelerating maintenance, Xcel backpedals to outages and tells people it’s for their own good.
For the love of pete, that’s pathetic management. Period.
We live here. We’re trying to run businesses, keep kids on track, heat homes, and plan a winter day without a roulette wheel deciding if electricity is allowed.
We didn’t sign up for a grid that panics, punishes customers, then turns around and lobbies to jack rates anyway. That’s bullsh*t.
Colorado deserves a grid that plans, fortifies, and delivers in boring, predictable conditions like wind. Blackouts as policy are a confession of failure, not a virtue signal.
How many more “safety” shutoffs before we drag this into daylight? Share this.
Source: Colorado Politics
Just Stop It
