Dive Summary:

• The Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Colorado’s second-biggest electricity generator, said it will cost $1 billion to add 430 megawatts (MW) of wind power to comply with the state’s new renewable-energy standard requiring 20% of its power come from renewables by 2020.
• Gov. John Hickenlooper signed Senate Bill 252, which raised the renewable energy goal from 10% by 2020 to 20%. Hickenlooper also made an executive order convening a committee to review the feasibility of the new law ahead of the 2014 legislative session.
• The utility said the $1 billion will cover new wind farms, transmissions lines, and natural gas power plants for back-up power when the wind isn't blowing. But skepticism looms. "I don’t think this can be done by 2020," said John Salazar, Colorado’s agriculture commissioner and a former congressman.

From the article:

"The committee also will look at how the law’s 2 percent rate cap — the limit that utility bills not go up any more than 2 percent in order to pay for the costs associated with meeting the mandate — might work."