A slam dunk for energy transition

We sometimes have pivots, long in the making but de ned by moments. ey occurred both in basketball and in Colorado energy on May 22.

In basketball, Nicola Jokic and the Nuggets dethroned the King, as LeBron James has long been known, and his Los Angeles Lakers. e Nuggets de ed Vegas oddsmakers but their ascendancy was in plain view for four years. is will be team’s rst nals appearance since entering the NBA in 1976.

In 1977, Colorado gained a national research laboratory, then called the Solar Energy Research Institute. Later renamed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL has expanded its missions

A publication of

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To subscribe call 303-566-4100 to gain energy self-su ciency. President Donald Trump in 2017 wanted to slash its budget. Congress refused.

Now, Congress has given NREL another $150 million in a special allocation. One result among several will be a new research facility focused on creating bioenergy capable of fueling airplanes. Commercial airplanes and large business jets account for 3% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EPA. In Aspen and Vail, I suspect it’s far higher. If batteries

LINDA SHAPLEY Publisher lshapley@coloradocommunitymedia.com

MICHAEL DE YOANNA Editor-in-Chief michael@coloradocommunitymedia.com

SCOTT TAYLOR Metro North Editor staylor@coloradocommunitymedia.com

BELEN WARD Community Editor bward@coloradocommunitymedia.com can power cars, buses, and even small aircraft, they’re heavy for long-distance air travel. Other solutions must be pursued. at leaves us at the intersection of uncertainty and exciting opportunities. We still don’t know how exactly we will reach 100% emissions-free electricity nor how we can end emissions from long-haul transportation, concrete produc-

Solar similarly once seemed like a long reach. Panels have become ubiquitous, and we’re just getting started in Colorado, owing in part to the seeds planted at NREL more than 40 years ago. By decade’s end, Colorado will almost certainly be at 80% renewable energy for our electrical generation and likely higher in some places.

STEVE SMITH Sports Editor ssmith@coloradocommunitymedia.com

LINDSAY NICOLETTI Operations/ Circulation Manager lnicoletti@coloradocommunitymedia.com

TERESA ALEXIS Marketing Consultant Classified Sales talexis@coloradocommunitymedia.com

AUDREY BROOKS Business Manager abrooks@coloradocommunitymedia.com tion and some other sectors.

At the NREL campus on Monday, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper captured the essence. “ e future is now,” he said. “In 50 years, we’re going to look back on what’s happening in the next few years as part of this great transition where the world we knew gets left behind.” at change, he acknowledged, will involve loss, a reference to the fossil fuel sectors being displaced. “We have to process that. But we don’t have too much time to spend mourning. We gotta move forward, because the future is now.”

Soon after, tours were conducted of the Research and Integration Laboratory, called RAIL. It will pur-

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Email letters to staylor@coloradocommunitymedia.com sue answers to the riddle of plastic recycling to help curtail consumption of fossil fuels. e lab was designed to be exible, though, to help solve other questions as they arise.

Deadline Wed. for the following week’s paper.

An hour before the tours and four miles away at the Colorado School of Mines, Gov. Jared Polis had signed several bills. e new laws contemplate possible solutions as Colorado stretches to achieve its emissions-reduction goals from 2030 to 2050.

Two of the laws anticipate using the subterranean in ways to quell emissions or even stow carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere. A central player in this governance will be the Energy and Carbon Management Commission, which is a new name for an old agency. is agency will have a broader mission than the oil and gas drilling that previously was its exclusive domain. One is potential tapping of underground heat to generate electricity. Another is governance of underground storage of hydrogen as Xcel Energy contemplates with a potential project involving the Pawnee power plant near Brush. Carbon capture and sequestration is a third possibility, but one hotly disputed by some environmental watchdogs, among them

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