Eastern Colorado’s new transmission line aims to deliver renewable energy to the Front Range, but faces local scrutiny
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. — Xcel Energy’s plan to turn the Eastern Plains into a renewable-energy superhighway is stuck in limbo.
Construction of the last segment of the $1.7 billion Power Pathway project to significantly increase the amount of electricity transmitted from the eastern plains to Front Range cities remains at a standstill after Elbert County and El Paso County voted in the summer of 2025 to deny land-use permits for a combined 93 miles of transmission lines needed to deliver the energy.
“I don’t think we as El Paso county residents owe Denver and the Front Range anything,” said Jeremy Gardner, an El Paso County resident who signed a deal with Xcel in the summer of 2025 to allow transmission infrastructure to be built on 4.5 acres of his land for payment — a decision he now regrets.
“They should not be using our property to generate profit for a multi-billion dollar company,” Gardner said. “Also, there is just as much damage created by wind turbines and solar farms.”
Living near renewable energy sources poses negligible health risks, while coal mining and burning release air pollution, mercury, particulate matter, and greenhouse gases that are far more harmful to human health, said Tara-Lloyd Burton, director of the Environmental Policy, Management, and Law program at the University of Colorado Denver. Burton is not involved in the Power Pathway Project.
There are six remaining coal-fired power plants in Colorado. The state plans to close all of them by 2031.
The Power Pathway project itself does not involve building wind turbines or solar panels. Rather, the goal of the project, according to Xcel, is to encourage construction of renewable energy plants.
The pathway is planned as a 550-mile double-circuit transmission line with four substations across 12 counties, capable of carrying 5,500 megawatts of electricity — enough to power more than 2.5 million homes annually from future renewable energy projects.
“The Eastern Plains of Colorado is one of the nation’s best areas for wind and solar,” Xcel said on the project’s website. “New transmission lines encourage construction of wind and solar power plants to bring more low-cost electricity to help meet the needs of our growing state.”
By 2030, Colorado aims to generate more than 80% of its electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind power.
Some residents of Elbert and El Paso counties opposed the project during multiple public hearings, citing concerns that the transmission lines could increase wildfire risk, harm local wildlife and provide little or no benefit to the community.
As a result, Elbert County commissioners denied permits for 48 miles of the segment and El Paso County commissioners denied permits for 45 miles, effectively halting construction since Xcel cannot proceed without local land-use approvals.
Xcel filed an appeal with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in August 2025, three years after the commission initially approved the project. The commission is expected to make a decision by April 2026.
“These decisions jeopardize the timely and cost-effective completion of the project,” Xcel Energy Spokesperson Kevin Coss said. “We have filed appeals (...) despite the permit denials, which the Commission is still considering. We plan to pursue all options for moving forward with the project on the existing route.”
Xcel also filed an appeal in district court to uphold its authority to provide electricity in Colorado, Coss added.
Burton said the two counties’ concerns about wildfire risk from the project are well-grounded, but that long-term impacts should be considered, too.
“Due to climate change and global heating, the risk of wildfires in the Colorado prairie is only going to go up until we stop relying on fossil fuels, both for transport and through energy generation,” Burton said.
“The project’s standard purpose is to accelerate the transition to renewable energy and so over the long haul, what they're trying to do will eventually reduce the risk of wildfire.”
In December 2025, multiple wildfires ignited by strong winds and dry conditions in Yuma County burned an estimated 14,050 acres, according to the Yuma County Office of Emergency Management. County officials believe that power lines downed by strong winds sparked the fires. All fires were contained within 24 hours.
Investigations into the two deadliest U.S. wildfires of the 21st century — Paradise, California in 2018 and Lāhainā, Hawai‘i in 2023 — determined that utility infrastructure failures sparked the fires.
“And so those were serious management failures in both of those cases that were the approximate cause of disaster,” Burton said.
According to Burton, it seems unlikely that the counties will be able to stop the project from going through from a legal standpoint. However, he encourages residents of El Paso and Elbert Counties to participate in the design and construction of the project as a way to ensure state-of-the-art monitoring throughout. These are all measures the CPUC has the authority to require from Xcel to implement to minimize future risks, Burton said.
“It will raise the risk of wildfire. How much the risk will be raised is entirely dependent on how forcefully the CPUC requires Xcel to mitigate against hazard,” said Burton.
Burton said energy providers should consider whether their infrastructure is up to date, properly functioning, and well-monitored, as well as whether vegetation beneath power lines is managed to keep rights-of-way clear of wildfire fuels. Burton added that utilities should make proactive decisions to cut off power when threat levels rise to prevent wildfires.
Before deciding on Xcel’s appeal, the CPUC is continuing to hold in-person public comment hearings: one was on December 9, 2025, in Elbert County, and another is scheduled for January 26, 2026, in El Paso County.
“You think you’re just going to pave over us out here on the Eastern Plains with solar panels and stick windmills everywhere,” said Elbert County resident James Williamson during a CPUC public comment hearing in early December.
“This has been tried all over the world. It has not worked anywhere,” Williamson said.
But in 2024, nearly two-thirds of Iowa’s electricity came from wind, the highest share of any state. Colorado ranks in the top ten nationwide in installed wind power capacity, supplying more than one-fourth of the state’s electricity. Denmark, a global leader in wind energy, generated more than 60% of its electricity from wind power in 2023, supplying more than a quarter of the country’s total primary energy consumption, according to data from the Energy Institute.
Many countries are following suit. The International Energy Agency reports that renewables are expected to become the largest global energy source, generating nearly 45% of electricity, by 2030.
“Renewable energy projects are thriving all over the world,” said Burton. “Renewable energy sources combined with adequate storage are turning out to be both less expensive and more reliable than any and all fossil fuel-based systems.”
Other Elbert County residents, like Deb Gray, said at the hearing that they are not against the project itself, but against the proposed route. Gray said the transmission line route would place high voltage power lines too close to people’s homes.
Two of the project’s five segments — numbers 2 and 3 spanning six counties — went into service in the spring of 2024. Two other segments — 1 and 4 spanning five counties in the eastern plains — are currently under construction and projected to be completed in 2026 and 2027, respectively.
Segment 5, still stalled, would complete the loop.
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