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PUC to Hold Pueblo Hearing on Xcel’s Comanche Unit 3 Closure; City lobbyists outline state bills affecting Pueblo
Summary
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission will hold a public hearing in Pueblo on Thursday, April 17, to collect community comment on how to provide a “just transition” as Xcel Energy prepares to close Comanche Unit 3, a coal-fired generator that provides jobs and local tax revenue.
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission will hold a public hearing in Pueblo on Thursday, April 17, to collect community comment on how to provide a “just transition” as Xcel Energy prepares to close Comanche Unit 3, a coal-fired generator that provides jobs and local tax revenue, the city’s lobbyist reported at the April 14 City Council meeting.
Brian McCain, introducing the city update, said the PUC hearing will be Thursday at Hoge Seidel Hall at Colorado State University–Pueblo from 4 to 6 p.m. “I encourage everybody from the community to show up and voice their opinion on this,” McCain said.
Why it matters: Comanche Unit 3 supports local employment and raises revenue for Pueblo-area governments. In his briefing the lobbyist said the plant’s closure will factor into state decision-making about replacement generation, jobs loss and a local economic impact the lobbyist characterized as substantial.
State legislative overview: The council’s legislative liaisons reported on multiple bills at different stages in the 2025 session. The lobbyist (Romero) said the office is watching bills that city attorneys and police chiefs have criticized as encroachments on home-rule authority. He named Senate Bill 62 (failure-to-appear rules for municipal court), which had passed both chambers and was awaiting the governor’s action as of April 7; House Bill 1147 (fairness and transparency in court procedures), which the House had not yet concurred on after Senate amendments; and a municipal-court measure the city supported, described as the Colorado Municipal League’s Municipal Court Bill (1276), which the lobbyist said failed on a party-line vote.
Romero also highlighted a recently introduced Senate Bill 276 that would extend strict privacy protections for immigration-related information to local governments, requiring agencies to maintain records of requests and restricting disclosure without a court order or consent. He said the city is analyzing operational impacts and potential unfunded burdens that could come with compliance obligations.
What was not decided: The briefing conveyed advocacy steps the city has taken (letters hand-delivered to the governor’s office) but reported no final local actions or council votes on the state bills during the meeting.
Community logistics and other notices: McCain’s update also included board-and-commission vacancies (for example, the ADA Advisory Committee and the Pueblo Commission on Energy), an April 16 Pueblo Memorial Airport flight preview for a new Denver Air Connection Essential Air Service beginning May 1, and a brief community update recognizing three police officers who returned home after injuries sustained in a shooting.
Ending: City staff said they will provide a fuller legislative report to council members and continue monitoring bills that could affect Pueblo’s budget, public-safety functions and home-rule authority.
