The same windy conditions that raked Oklahoma last week were also responsible for 100 mile an hour winds in Colorado where they blew up some criticism from Xcel Energy’s leader for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, calling him “uninformed.”
The utility’s move to be overly cautious to avoid a repeat of the deadly fires that destroyed hundreds of homes and left some residents dead four years ago stirred up restless leaders.
The comments from Robert Kenney, president of Xcel Energy Colorado were in response to the governor’s criticism of the utility for turning off electrical power to tens of thousands of Colorado customers because of the prediction of Front Range winds estimated at 80 mph to 100mph. The utility took no chances of sparking disastrous wildfires when power lines were downed by the strong winds.
Kenney said the critical comments from Polis were “unfortunate” and “uninformed.”
“I thought the governor’s statement about our communications was unfortunate and didn’t reflect, I think, an assessment of the full facts,” Kenney said, reported the Denver Gazette.
Some of the 60,000 residents without power as of Saturday morning lost their electricity when Xcel pulled the plug on Wednesday according to Xcel Energy’s Electric Outage Map.
The utility initially thought its crews would be able to begin restoration efforts on Friday but the massive winds were still considered severe. Some of those without power over the weekend could see the outage continue on Monday.
Gov. Polis responded to Xcel’s action by issuing a statement two days after the utility turned off power in some areas of the state due to the extreme fire dangers posed by the windstorm. Xcel’s decision to be overly cautious was sparked in part because one of its power lines was deemed partially responsible for starting the 2021 Marshall Fire in Boulder County.
“No Coloradan should be wondering if they will or will not have power, and when it may be turned on again, or worse, receive no communication or confusing communication,” Polis said.
He was supported by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a candidate for governor, who also criticized the outages for their impact on residents and businesses: “Xcel shutoffs shouldn’t be this way.”
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