The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s William Yeatman explained last week how giant electric utility Xcel Energy incorporates a carbon tax into its economic models to evaluate how it makes its resource acquisitions. From his blog post at Globalwarming.org (but make sure you read the whole thing):

Ratepayers can’t see it in their monthly bill, but the tax is used in the models, and the models dictate spending. It’s the worst kind of virtual reality: The carbon tax leaps from computers to ratepayer wallets.

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission was authorized to allow for a carbon tax in 2008 with the passage of HB 1164 by the General Assembly. The legislation was advertised as an essential component of former Governor’s Bill Ritter’s environmentalist “New Energy Economy,” but, in practice, the carbon tax has served as an accounting loophole through which Xcel Energy, the largest investor-owned utility in the State, has awarded itself big time profits.

Yeatman was an expert declarant for American Tradition Institute’s lawsuit against the State of Colorado which argues that its Renewable Energy Standard is unconstitutional. You can read his declaration here, and more about the lawsuit here.

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