Lawmakers eye 'troubling' record of guv's pick for PUC

An environmental activist nominated to serve on Colorado's powerful Public Utilities Commission is drawing fire for his record of attacks on a key sector of the state's energy economy. Lawmakers are challenging Environment Colorado Executive Director  Matt Baker's fitness for his new post given his lengthy history of fighting coal-fired power plants--which generate fully 80 percent of Colorado's electricity.

Baker's nomination by Gov. Bill Ritter must get Senate approval and goes before the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee today.

"Mr. Baker's record is very troubling to me and many of my colleagues," said Senate Republican leader Andy McElhany of Colorado Springs.

"Appointments to the commission are in some ways supposed to be like appointments to the judiciary," McElhany said. "You want experience in areas like energy, the environment and consumer protection, but you do not want someone on board who is driven by an overarching political agenda."

McElhany also said there are questions about Baker's basic qualifications. A history major in college, Baker has no technical background in the issues that dominate the commission, McElhany said.

"He seems to be a professional activist and an impassioned spokesman for his organization, which is fine," McElhany said. "Yet, it is hard to see how any of that qualifies him to handle the complexities of utilities regulation or look out for the interests of ratepayers."

McElhany added, "I am well aware of the governor's desire to 'green' government with appointments to his administration picked from the environmental movement. What is surprising is that he would pick someone with such hostility toward one of the most cost-effective and practical means of powering our homes and businesses."

The commission is charged with regulating the rates and quality of service of telephone, gas, electric and water utilities. Baker's critics point out that his opposition to a principal means of generating the state's power casts doubt on his understanding of the utilities industries he would be regulating.

Baker appeared to be retreating from his stance against coal last week after his pending appointment set off a barrage of criticism. He told the Denver Post, "We can't be anti-coal or anti-natural-gas and expect us to meet our power needs."

Yet, his previous statements to the press and the public as well as his activist organization's own Website reveal strident opposition to the use of coal in power

generation.

Baker's organization put out a sweeping report last month called, "A Blueprint for Action," outlining steps they would have the Ritter administration take to reduce the state's impact on climate change. One of the report's recommendations is for a "strong generation performance standard" that "would lead to the retirement of the oldest coal-fired power plants and stop the construction of new ones."

Under the headline, " Fighting Coal Plants," Environment Colorado's fall 2005 newsletter boasts, "Cleaning up dirty, coal-fired power plants and preventing new ones from being built is a top priority for Environment Colorado."

The organization's Website devotes page after page to promoting an anti-coal agenda, in one case pointing to an advertising campaign in the New Yorker magazine that included the pronouncement, "THERE IS A ‘SILVER BULLET’ FOR SOLVING GLOBAL WARMING… NO MORE COAL."

That has key Republican senators shaking their heads.

"Walking away from coal power generation is like waving the white flag on energy independence," the GOP's Sen. Josh Penry, of Grand Junction, told the Denver Post last week. "It's a luxury America does not have."