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BLAKE: IREA chief battles the greens

Peter Blake

Published February 5, 2009 at 3:15 p.m.

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He wears dark suits and works in an airy suburban office, but Stanley Lewandowski lives by the same motto as Henry Stamper, the stubborn Oregon logger in Ken Kesey's novel Sometimes a Great Notion:

"Never Give A Inch."

Lewandowski, general manager of the Intermountain Rural Electric Association, resists all of the ever-growing demands of "greens" when it comes to supplying power.

For instance, Senate Bill 39, on the floor this week, would permit, but not require, the state's 22 electric co-ops to establish inverted block rates.

You remember these rates from your water bill. The more gallons you use, the more you pay per gallon - a reverse volume discount. It's so effective that the water department generally "rewards" you by raising your base rate the next year to make up for the lost revenue. When you save, you pay.

Inverse block rates are not illegal in electric law, but currently customers aggrieved by discriminatory rates can file an appeal with the Public Utilities Commission. The pending legislation would remove that possibility.

It's being supported by the Colorado Rural Electric Association, the co-ops' trade association. But the prime impetus comes from Holy Cross Energy, the co-op serving Aspen, Vail and other resort towns whose wealthy residents find it easy being green.

But Lewandowski has instructed his lobbyists, Dick Soash and Ruben Valdez, to work against the bill. "What's voluntary today becomes mandatory tomorrow," he explained. "Some issues are not to be compromised. We're either for them or against them."

Lewandowski dropped out of the CREA last December because of its increasingly compromised views.

He won't tolerate inverse block rates. He's charged flat rates since he took over Intermountain in 1974. "We were created to provide the best possible electric service at the lowest possible cost," he said.

In Lewandowski's view, many co-ops have been, well, co-opted by enviros, who have been trying to take over their elected boards. Intermountain, by far the largest of the state's co-ops with 138,000 customers west, south and east of Denver, withstood a coup two years ago, but faces another soon.

A bill killed last year but expected to return this session would require REAs to create "energy efficiency" programs similar to Xcel's - granting rebates to those who buy efficient new appliances or install solar panels.

Of course he's against rebates. "The only way to make it feasible is to get somebody else to pay for it," he said, "i.e., the general rate payer."

In other words, the poorer customers who can't afford new appliances or solar panels have to subsidize those who can.

A hard-bitten regular at the Capitol put rebate programs this way: "The 'green' movement is a way to make poor people feel good about being screwed."

Lewandowski, 71, believes new appliances should be their own reward, recovering their costs over time.

He's not cooperating in Gov. Bill Ritter's "Climate Action Plan," a voluntary (so far) program which is supposed to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by 2020. "It's not going to happen," he said. "It'll kill the economy." And President Barack Obama's plans to impose a cap-and-trade system will only drive electric prices higher by effectively adding a tax to coal.

"If you take all the fossil-fuel plants in Colorado and shut them down, in two weeks China will replace all the carbon dioxide you've cut with its new plants."

He sees global warming as a fraudulent cause promised by those who want to limit growth and increase the price of energy. He noted with some satisfaction that in a recent Pew poll, global warming ranked 20th in a list of 20 issues concerning Americans.

A couple of years ago Lewandowski was contemplating retirement because his wife's health was poor. But she's gotten better and he's staying on indefinitely. He doesn't want to give his enemies the satisfaction of watching him go.

Peter Blake is a former Rocky Mountain News political columnist. He can be reached at pblake0705@comcast.net.

Comments

  • February 5, 2009

    4:38 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Mike_In_Hartsel writes:

    Here we go again. Here come the radical-enviros screaming about how we are killing the planet with not one shred of physical proof to back their claims. They don't care what the cost is as long as they get their way.

  • February 5, 2009

    7:43 p.m.

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    SheikYurBooty writes:

    Stan - you got it wrong. The Republican Party was formed to make poor people feel good about being screwed. There's even a book about it: "What's the Matter with Kansas." You should read it.

  • February 5, 2009

    9:02 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    jbowen43 writes:

    There already is a coal tax but it's not being paid by the electric consumers. It is being paid by children who will suffer with health problems for their entire lives as a result of consuming poisoned water, air and breast milk all cause by burning filthy coal. Their is a nuclear tax and it's being paid by residents of the Navajo Reservation and surrounding communities. It's about time that the consumers of coal generated electricity started paying for the full cost of that energy.

  • February 5, 2009

    10:23 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    InEssence writes:

    Hey Sheik,

    The Republican Party is for the very wealthy, and the Democratic Party is for the ultra-rich. We seem to be caught in a death spiral where we are all fixated on emulating the filthy rich.

    Hang in there Stan! It is refreshing to see someone who thinks as an independent rather than regurgitating the party line (the last part from Winston Lord - CFR).

  • February 6, 2009

    10:41 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Wxdano writes:

    "He sees global warming as a fraudulent cause promised by those who want to limit growth and increase the price of energy. "

    He is, IOW, paranoid and deluded. Taking it out on The Other.

    At least the thought process is so easily detected, indicated by the liberal use of partisan talking points.

    Best,

    D

  • February 7, 2009

    7:40 a.m.

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    Stickee writes:

    Coal fired plant, Stan's personal love, have been able to dump its effluent into streams, ground and air from the beginning of time.

    If coal plants were made to pay for its wastes, from its mining to is burning, its resulting energy cost would be more expensive than alternatives... period, game over, subject mute, let's move on!

  • February 7, 2009

    9:49 a.m.

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    Romulus writes:

    I never realized that Darth Vader was running IREA.

  • February 8, 2009

    11:45 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    slimpaul writes:

    Stickee,
    We are all carbon based "from the begining of time" and whatever form the carbon takes it is is still natural.
    Tell me of what alternatives of energy are you thinking of?
    slimapul

  • February 9, 2009

    1:06 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    preineil writes:

    InE
    WTH does runaway cost from dependence on a depleting finite fuel source, and the damage to our health and the natural environment upon which we rely, have to do with party politics? Partisanship has no place when it interferes with the good of the nation, planet and our fellow humans. Get over it.

    Romulus, I think InE is really Darth Maul.

    Slimpaul
    Carbon is natural, but must be kept in balance. What we are seeing is the loss of balance. If you think any level of CO2 is acceptable because it is natural, ask the polar bears what they think. Mercury, Arsenic, cadmium, lead etc are also natural yet are being concentrated and our exposure to them increasing as a result of burning coal. I suggest you refrain from false arguments. If you're gonna enter into public dialogue, bring something constructive along.

    Stan is manifesting willful ignorance and harming us all in the process.