Colorado health officials want to withdraw the looming closure of Xcel’s Comanche 2 coal power unit in Pueblo from federal review in order to extend its operations through expected high demand next summer, but environmental groups charge the Polis administration with further backsliding on dirty coal. 

A last-minute agenda item asks the Air Quality Control Commission on Thursday to approve a state letter pulling Comanche 2’s closure on Dec. 31 from a federally required plan to fight haze and other air pollution. State clean air and renewable energy officials are working with Xcel and the Public Utilities Commission to reverse Comanche 2’s pending closure and allow it to operate through 2026 to avoid electric shortages and fuel price hikes. 

State officials call the letter to the EPA a strategic retreat, and insist they are not giving up legislatively mandated targets to close coal plants and have 80% of Colorado’s electricity generated by clean, renewable sources by 2030. Taking the closure language out of federal hands still leaves Comanche 2 and other closures in state regulations, and Colorado will enforce those no matter what the Trump administration does, state officials say. 

“Withdrawing the provision ensures the federal process aligns with the state process” while the PUC evaluates the Comanche 2 extension petition from Xcel and state agencies, a state spokesperson said. “A decision is expected in mid-December.”

Air Pollution Control Director Michael Ogletree said in an emailed statement, “The big picture is that Colorado’s commitments and priorities have not changed. We are continuing to protect air quality and reduce emissions from power generation while ensuring Coloradans’ access to affordable, reliable energy. This strategic move will help the state ensure a just, equitable transition from coal plants while we continue addressing climate change, regional haze, and ground-level ozone pollution.”

But it’s a surrender, not a strategic retreat, environmental advocates say. 

“If the dates are only in state rules it means only the state can enforce the dates. Given that state health and the Colorado Energy Office have already indicated they intend to appease the Trump administration and support keeping several coal-fired power plants open beyond their retirement dates, it’s clear they likely have no intention of enforcing the retirement dates,” said Jeremy Nichols, with the Center for Biological Diversity. 

“This whole thing could just be a cover up to make the retirement dates meaningless through a lack of enforcement,” Nichols said. “It’s really bizarre, I don’t see any strategy here, just a disturbing willingness by the Polis administration to completely back down from our state’s commitments on climate and clean energy.” 

Colorado’s coal-plant closure plans are being stretched by a combination of Xcel’s operational failures and rapid growth in high-volume electricity demand from data centers that Xcel says will push needs up 8% a year. Xcel’s troubled Comanche 3 unit at the Pueblo complex is offline again until at least June, after years of breakdowns. Xcel on Nov. 10 applied to the PUC — supported by state clean air officials and the Colorado Energy Office — to extend smaller Comanche 2’s operations for 2026 to provide backup and reliability at peak periods where sharply increased demand has eliminated any cushion. 

Comanche’s unit 1 was retired in 2022. 

Sierra Club Colorado declined comment on the pending AQCC vote regarding the EPA, saying the group was working on its filing for the same questions confronting the PUC. But the club has previously said the consequences of Comanche 2 running throughout 2026 are clear: “more air pollution in Pueblo and higher electricity bills for everyone.”

The Trump administration has been overriding local plans in multiple states as it tries to boost the coal industry, ordering some coal plants to stay open beyond their scheduled shuttering date. On Wednesday, the administration again ordered an extension of operations at a Michigan plant originally scheduled to close last May, and state officials and environmental groups are fighting the extensions in court. 

The Tri-State Generation cooperative is also expecting Trump administration orders to keep the 45-year-old, 446-megawatt Craig Unit 1 running in Moffat County.

The unit is scheduled to close at the end of the year, and the Craig Station’s two other units will close in 2028. Tri-State operates Craig Station and co-owns it with the Salt River Project, the Platte River Power Authority, PacifiCorp and Xcel Energy.

Xcel’s Comanche operations have been the center of a policy tug of war for years. Many civic leaders in Pueblo County are worried about the loss of jobs and Xcel tax revenues when the coal units shut down, and some are even floating the idea of building a modern nuclear reactor on the site to create jobs. Other advocacy and neighborhood groups have fought pollution from Comanche and Pueblo’s other industrial sources for decades, and have looked forward to decommissioning the coal units. 

The letter to the EPA that state health officials are asking the air quality commission to approve credits state agencies for their “robust and nimble” response to operational problems at Comanche 3 and the growing data center demand for energy. The letter adds, though, that the Air Pollution Control Division also intends to work with Xcel “to minimize and mitigate any emissions impact from this action.” 

Colorado’s environmental groups aren’t buying it, and will make their opposition known in public comment periods before the AQCC’s vote to advance the letter Thursday. 

“The Polis administration is clearly going to bat for coal, opting to keep dirty and costly coal burning power plants operating rather than holding utilities accountable to building out the affordable clean energy we need,” Nichols said. “Xcel’s ‘reliability’ issues are its own fault, and the company shouldn’t be rewarded with a free pass to keep polluting.”