Shame on Xcel and Colorado

Let me be clear at the outset: I fully support mitigating natural disasters—especially wildfires—whenever and wherever possible. Public safety must always come first. That said, the way this recent power shutoff was executed was deeply mismanaged and remarkably tone-deaf on Xcel’s part.

It’s hard to ignore the broader context. This outage felt less like a carefully planned safety measure and more like a political pressure tactic following the state’s settlement related to the Marshall Fire. With the state unwilling to assume future fire risk, Xcel appears to be protecting itself by shifting the burden to customers. While I can understand why a corporation would act to limit liability, that reality exposes the real issue: we have a publicly traded company operating our state’s power grid.

Like any for-profit company, Xcel is incentivized to maximize shareholder value. The result is outdated infrastructure, aging technology, and sluggish systems—paired with consistently rising bills and strong profits. There is little motivation to change unless they are required to.

That’s where the state must step in. We need clear rules and legislation that compel reinvestment of earnings into modern infrastructure and technology—so when shutoffs are necessary, they are faster, more targeted, and far less disruptive.

I don’t object to occasional outages for legitimate safety reasons. What is unacceptable is how long this process took and how poorly it was communicated. Xcel needs to invest in workforce expansion and infrastructure upgrades before placing such a heavy burden on its customers.

And speaking of customers—shouldn’t we have a voice in decisions that directly shut down our power? These outages are economically crippling and severely disruptive to daily life. There has to be a better, more sustainable, and more collaborative approach.

Let’s work together to find it.