The Colorado Sun flagged the third straight clean-energy head-scratcher in just two years: Amprius Technologies axed its $190 million Brighton battery facility, VSK Energy’s $250 million solar plant never rose in 2024, and now this Brighton battery plant joins the list of broken green-energy promises. Each cancellation leaned heavily on federal subsidies, state grants, and guaranteed tax breaks—and each fizzled when the market (and the taxpayer checkbook) dried up.
The Green “Sustainability” Mirage
Let’s not sugarcoat it: without fat subsidies and mandate-driven “demand,” clean energy in Colorado crashes harder than a cowboy’s first rodeo. We all know the drill:
- Subsidy Dependence: These projects only pencil out because taxpayers underwrite them. Pull the plug on Biden’s or Polis’s subsidies, and poof—no more factories, no more solar “gold rush.”
- Mandates, Mandates, Mandates: The only reason there’s a solar blitz in Weld County is because the legislature ordered Xcel and other utilities to buy renewables. That creates an artificial market, driving offers to aging farmers for rates two or three times their crop income if they would only stop farming and put up solar panels. Would farmers leap at real market prices? Of course not.
- Water Wars: Metro Denver keeps circling Weld’s water rights, offering farmers multiples of agricultural value—fueling another government-created frenzy. When your water is worth more to the city than to your corn, you sell it. Congratulations: you just transformed rural Weld into a suburban reservoir and solar desert.
An All-of-the-Above Alternative
President Trump’s energy playbook wasn’t about picking winners or bleeding taxpayers dry—it was about unleashing American ingenuity across the board:
- Oil & Gas as a Bridge: Keep drilling and refining here, not in hostile foreign lands. Use those revenues to fund incremental renewables research—on our terms.
- Nuclear & Hydro First: Ramp up small modular reactors and modernize dams. Reliable, carbon-free, and not hostage to fickle weather or distant supply chains.
- Market-Driven Solar & Wind: Let developers compete without mandates. If solar can stand on its own, great—if not, it’ll fail before your neighbor’s farm gets dried up and paneled over.
- Innovation Tax Incentives: Replace open-ended subsidies with targeted R&D credits. Reward breakthroughs, don’t bankroll boondoggles.
My Bottom Line
Green-energy cheerleaders wrapped in “sustainability” cloaks preach march-in mandates while bailing out every failed venture with taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile, Weld County farmers are left choosing between salty well-water and a pocket full of solar IOUs. Real energy independence—and affordable, reliable power—won’t come from legislative fiat. It’ll come from unleashing every tool in America’s energy arsenal, securing supply chains, and trusting consumers, not bureaucrats, to decide which kilowatts carry the day.
So next time a clean-energy “breakthrough” needs a $50 million grant, remember: if it can’t survive the free market, it doesn’t deserve your dime. Stop the green energy grift, embrace all-of-the-above, and let Colorado’s energy future be powered by reality, not an altruistic, environmentalist bought and paid for state legislature.
