The climate emergency demands that we quickly replace fossil fuels with low-carbon renewables. Unfortunately, Xcel plans to operate the Comanche 3 coal-fired power plant in Pueblo until 2040, making it the only utility in Colorado planning to burn coal after 2030. Comanche 3 is Colorado’s single biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions and is a major contributor to smog, as well as causing or contributing to asthma attacks and other respiratory and cardiac illnesses. Coal plants are the most expensive and polluting form of energy in Colorado. This Spring, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission released a report on Comanche 3, revealing that it has been far more expensive and far less reliable than Xcel promised when it built the plant. The plant has been shut down due to malfunctioning equipment for 700 days since it started operating in 2010. Malfunctions in 2020 alone resulted in an additional $25 million in capital costs and nearly $16 million in replacement power costs. Xcel customers are footing the bill for operation of an unreliable, highly polluting power plant that should be shut down by 2030 and replaced with clean, abundant wind energy (the cheapest form of energy in Colorado).