Colorado Referendum Will Increase Renewable Energy Production - Reuters

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LOS ANGELES - "Colorado looks set for a five-fold expansion of the state's use of renewable energy resources such as wind following the approval by voters of a ballot measure.

The initiative, known as Amendment 37, calls for major Colorado utilities to raise use of renewable energy to 10 percent by 2015, up from about 2 percent at present. It passed by a narrow margin of around 52 percent to 48 percent.

"It is an ambitious initiative and now there are a lot of questions about how to implement it in our day to day operations," said Jim Van Someren, spokesman for Westminster, Colorado-based Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc.

Van Someren said questions included how increased costs would be handled with the ballot measure capping costs for residential customers but not businesses. Tri-State, which supplies power to 18 electric co-operatives in Colorado, currently generates less than one percent of its power from renewables with coal-fired power plants providing about 80 percent."

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http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/28004/story.htm