Coloradans who struggle to pay bills received good news Wednesday, when Gov. John Hickenlooper officially abandoned his plan to impose higher “clean power” mandates by executive order.

“I think the response – the pushback – from the executive order was so intense that the potential benefits were outweighed by the collateral damage,” Hickenlooper told reporters Tuesday night, in advance of the Colorado Legislature’s 2017 opening day.

Hickenlooper’s talk of higher energy standards by fiat came in August, six months after the Supreme Court of the United States put President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan on hold. The court, days before Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, ruled the plan posed “irreparable harm” to states and their residents.

To see the “irreparable harm,” look to Colorado. It has some of the highest clean power standards in the country. We don’t mean look to Aspen, Vail and Boulder, where typical residents can easily absorb substantial utility hikes to combat global warming hypothesis. We’re talking about Pueblo and other less star-studded communities in which working-class households struggle to make ends meet.

Read more at The Colorado Springs Gazette.