Colorado’s push to fight carbon emissions and climate change could get a boost from the private sector, if a proposal from Guzman Energy becomes reality.

The Denver-based energy wholesaler offered to buy and idle two energy coal plants in Colorado and one in New Mexico for the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, which supplies most of Colorado’s rural and small-town cooperatives.

“Guzman Energy brought us an imaginative and creative high-level verbal proposal, which lacked any specific or meaningful detail or terms,” Duane Highley, chief executive officer of Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, said in a statement.

“Tri-State requested a written proposal, but Guzman refused to provide one, instead deciding to go the press.”

Guzman officials, however, said Tri-State was not interested in the offer, but they might be once new laws passed during this year’s legislative session force them to reduce their carbon emissions.

The three plants provide about half of Tri-State’s coal operation. In return, 70% of the energy Tri-State would buy from Guzman would come from renewable sources.

“This is a big deal,” House Speaker KC Becker of Boulder, author of the state’s new Climate Action Plan, tweeted Tuesday afternoon. “Tri-State could save money for their customers, save carbon output, and meet new climate change goals if they worked on this deal.”

A few minutes later she retweeted Rep. Chris Hansen, D-Denver.

“Tri-State has another option to reduce carbon pollution, this combined with SB19-236 put Colorado on a path to end coal-fired power, drastically reduce emissions and improve air quality,” Hansen wrote.

The bill he referenced reauthorized the state Public Utilities Commission, the rate-setting panel that got new marching orders to weigh the social cost of carbon.

Its proposal would lower Tri-State’s costs and allow it to pass on significant savings to members without affecting reliability.

“Rapidly changing economics, combined with new carbon reduction goals in states that include the majority of Tri-State’s members, mean there’s a lot at stake for those who own and are served by Tri-State,” Guzman Energy President Chris Riley stated.

“We’ve put a proposal on the table that would help Tri-State and its members lower costs right now while simultaneously reaching compliance with new laws. We look forward to taking the proposal directly to Tri-State’s owners and facilitating an open and transparent dialogue.”