by Tony Flesor
Law Week Colorado

Colorado’s Renewable Energy Standard is facing challenges on two fronts: in the courts and in the legislature…

Last year, the RES temporarily survived an attempt to remove it when a Colorado District Court judge ruled against the activist group, the Environment and Energy Legal Institute, which goes by the abbreviated name E&E Legal. E&E Legal had challenged the constitutionality of the standard, saying it discriminated against fossil fuel energy companies and forced outside states to comply with the standard. Following the District Court decision, E&E Legal filed an appeal in the 10th Circuit.

The court heard arguments on E&E’s appeal Jan. 21. According to David Schnare, general counsel for E&E, electric utilities are forced to purchase renewable energy credits to meet the state standard, and many of those credits come from outside the state’s borders. The Colorado ruling butts against a U.S. District Court for Minnesota ruling about whether that qualifies as “extraterritorial” regulation.

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