the energy & environmental security initiative (back to front page)http://www.colorado.edu/law/eesi/News/001/Page1.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0
HB-1203:  Should we continue to promote conventional coal-fired power plants over such alternatives as IGCC facilities? How do we formulate energy strategies that meet the targets set by the State's Renewable Portfolio Standard (20% by 2020 for investor-owned utilities) while simultaneously creating the foundations for moving toward more ambitious standards? Pursuant to HB-1203, the Colorado Energy Profile will lay the informational foundations needed to chart a course that will June 2007: Issue One: Page 2 maximize Colorado's extraordinary potential for conventional, renewable, and advanced energy resources without falling prey to such pitfalls as boom and bust cycles, increased carbon dioxide and other emissions, and unforeseen inadequacies in electricity generation and distribution infrastructure.  Under EESI's direction, the project will create a database of Colorado energy information that will guide and facilitate informed answers to such questions. At present there is no single resource that endeavors to offer a comprehensive picture of energy in Colorado.  While numerous governmental, corporate, academic, and other entities generate varying types of information with respect to energy in Colorado, the scattered nature of this information makes it extremely difficult to arrive at a comprehensive (or, for that matter, sectoral) understanding of energy in Colorado—encompassing all the relevant aspects of energy supply, production, generation, transmission, distribution and consumption. The Colorado Energy Profile will remedy this informational deficit by providing the State with detailed, up-to-date, policy-neutral statistics and data regarding Colorado's energy resources.   The online database created by this project will contain up-to-date statistical information and other data on the supply, production, generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption of energy in Colorado. The structure of the database will be designed to enable users to easily generate detailed "reports" and "snapshots" of given sectors or energy resource areas, and also to produce user-defined comparative evaluations of the information contained in the database.  EESI will also generate a companion report to the database.  The report will provide Colorado decision-makers with an objective, easy to understand overview regarding the supply, production, generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption of energy in Colorado, as well as laws and policies that impact energy in Colorado.
History of EESI Kevin Doran The manner and extent to which increasing global energy demand can be met within the framework of sustainable development presents the greatest global environmental challenge of the 21st century.  EESI is a response to this challenge. Launched in 2003 by Professor Lakshman Guruswamy as an interdisciplinary research and policy center based at the University of Colorado Law School (Colorado Law), the purpose of EESI is to facilitate progress toward a global sustainable energy future through the innovative use of laws, policies, technology, and information solutions. To fulfill this purpose, EESI is designed to advance the research and pedagogical missions of Colorado Law by enhancing national and international knowledge concerning the impact of laws and policies on the scientific, engineering, sociopolitical, and commercial dimensions of sustainable energy.  EESI began in 2003 with the release of a white paper by Professor Lakshman Guruswamy and Senior Fellow Kevin Doran entitled, "A New Framework: Post-Kyoto Energy & Environmental Security."  In the paper, Guruswamy and Doran set forth the rationale for moving toward a new understanding of the energy crisis—one based on an interdisciplinary, systems-based perspective See History, Page 4http://www.colorado.edu/law/eesi/News/001/Page4.htmlshapeimage_6_link_0