---
title: "Colorado weighs widening who can appeal county denials; 93 miles of Xcel's line sit denied"
description: "The petition accepted November 5 would widen who can appeal a county denial while 93 miles of Xcel's Power Pathway already sit denied and 4 gigawatts of expected data center agreements wait behind 2,400 planned miles of line. For an investor, county permits now gate the build."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Policy & Labor"
published: 2026-11-12T19:08:31.166Z
modified: 2026-11-12T19:08:31.166Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/colorado-accepted-a-petition-to-widen-who-can-appeal-county-denials-and-93-miles-of-xcel-s-line-sit-denied
language: en
keywords: "Xcel Energy, Colorado, Transmission, Utilities, Data Centers"
---

# Colorado weighs widening who can appeal county denials; 93 miles of Xcel's line sit denied

> The petition accepted November 5 would widen who can appeal a county denial while 93 miles of Xcel's Power Pathway already sit denied and 4 gigawatts of expected data center agreements wait behind 2,400 planned miles of line. For an investor, county permits now gate the build.

Elbert County, Colorado denied [Xcel Energy](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/xcel-energy)'s permit for a 48-mile segment of its Eastern Plains Power Pathway, the transmission network that moves Eastern Plains wind and solar to the Front Range [1]. El Paso County denied a further 45 miles [1]. Xcel appealed both, telling the state that the denials unreasonably impair its ability to provide safe, reliable and economical service statewide [1].

![A steel lattice transmission tower under construction in front of a substation, orange marking cones on dry grassland behind it](https://storage.googleapis.com/theinference-public/img/830fb236319fa0d5.jpg)

*A transmission tower and substation under construction on the Carrizo Plain in California. Xcel's Colorado build runs to 2,400 miles of new line in its $70 billion plan, and every segment needs a county permit. (Sarah Swenty, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)*

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission reversed Elbert County in April, and the county board answered that its local input had been "ignored, disregarded and determined to be insignificant" [1]. On November 5 the commission took up a petition that decides who else can make the same move [1].

## Xcel's $70 billion plan runs on 2,400 miles of new transmission

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ: XEL) published [a $70 billion capital plan for 2027 through 2031](https://www.utilitydive.com/news/xcel-energy-renewables-wind-earnings/873273/) on October 29, 17% larger than the plan it replaces [2][3]. Electric transmission takes $18.56 billion and 2,400 miles, and every mile built becomes rate base, the asset Xcel earns its regulated return on, so a county refusal keeps an earning asset off the books [2][3].

About $7 billion of the plan serves data centers already under contract, and Xcel expects agreements for another 4 gigawatts of data center load by the end of 2027 [3]. A further $10 billion of spending sits outside the base budget, for pending generation requests, high-voltage transmission and the infrastructure behind those agreements [3].

*Chart: **Xcel's capital spending has outrun operating cash in all nine quarters** Line chart of Xcel Energy capital spending and operating cash flow by quarter from Q3 2024 to Q3 2026, both in billions of dollars; capital spending rises from $1.8B to $3.3B and sits above operating cash in every quarter.*

*Xcel Energy's capital spending and cash from operations by quarter, in billions of dollars, from the company's SEC filings. Capex has nearly doubled since mid-2024, the pace its $70 billion plan for 2027 through 2031 extends. Source: Xcel Energy quarterly SEC filings, retrieved November 12, 2026. [4]*

## The appeal door is open to only one class of utility

Colorado's 1974 law gives cities and counties first say over major utility facilities through their own permitting process, called 1041 powers, and state law lets a utility appeal certain denials to the commission [1]. But the appeal is written for a "public utility", a term applied mainly to investor-owned utilities like Xcel [1]. Municipal utilities, electric cooperatives and the private developers who build many projects have no settled right to file [1].

## The Energy Office asked the commission to widen the appeal to three more players

The Colorado Energy Office [petitioned on September 4](https://www.denvergazette.com/2026/11/09/state-energy-office-seeks-broader-puc-authority-on-local-power-denials/) to declare that municipal utilities and cooperatives may appeal, that a utility may appeal for a private developer whose project sits in an approved resource plan, and that some technologies missing from current law are covered [1]. It creates no new override; it widens who can use the existing one [1].

The build it protects is split across four utilities, and Colorado's is the third-largest pot [2].

*Chart: **Colorado's utility takes $16.1B of Xcel's $70B capital plan** Column chart of the four-utility split of Xcel Energy's $70 billion 2027-2031 capital plan: Southwestern Public Service $25.82 billion, NSP-Minnesota $24.84 billion, Public Service Company of Colorado $16.1 billion, NSP-Wisconsin $3.6 billion, with Colorado's utility highlighted.*

*Xcel Energy's $70 billion base capital plan for 2027-2031, allocated to its four utility subsidiaries in billions of dollars, as reported in the company's earnings release. Plan figures, not yet spent. Source: Morning Overview, November 10, 2026. [2]*

## Counties call the state's route a do-over

Former Elbert County Commissioner Christopher Richardson wrote that the counties' 1041 authority is about "how and where, not whether, infrastructure is built", and that granting appeals tells utilities they can "go through the motions locally, and if you do not like the outcome, come to the PUC and ask for a do-over" [1]. The petition does not answer that charge.

It widens who can take a county decision to the state, and leaves the county deciding first [1].

## 30 days to join, then the Elbert precedent decides

Other parties have 30 days to join the case, and an administrative law judge takes the next steps [1]. What to watch: whether counties file to oppose the widened appeal, and how the commission's April Elbert reversal shapes its weighing of any future denial [1]. [The Inference reported Xcel's $8 billion raise on November 5](https://theinference.org/article/xcel-energy-raised-8-billion-in-six-days-for-a-70-billion-grid-plan-no-data-center-has-signed); the money is raised and the plan is printed, and 93 of its 2,400 miles still need a county's signature [1][2][3].

## Takeaway

Colorado's utilities commission is deciding who may appeal a county permit denial, and Xcel needs that appeal: 93 of the 2,400 miles in its $70 billion plan are already denied.

## Sources

1. [The Denver Gazette, State energy office seeks broader PUC authority on local power denials, 9 November 2026](https://www.denvergazette.com/2026/11/09/state-energy-office-seeks-broader-puc-authority-on-local-power-denials/)
2. [Morning Overview, Xcel Energy's $70 billion five-year plan adds 9.2 GW of renewables and 2.3 GW of storage, 10 November 2026](https://morningoverview.com/xcel-energys-70-billion-five-year-plan-adds-9-2-gw-of-renewables-and-2-3-gw-of-storage/)
3. [Utility Dive, Xcel Energy rolls out $70B, 5-year capital plan focused on renewables, 30 October 2026](https://www.utilitydive.com/news/xcel-energy-renewables-wind-earnings/873273/)
4. [Xcel Energy, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 12 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000072903)


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Colorado weighs widening who can appeal county denials; 93 miles of Xcel's line sit denied — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/colorado-accepted-a-petition-to-widen-who-can-appeal-county-denials-and-93-miles-of-xcel-s-line-sit-denied