The Colorado Public Utilities Commission refused to ease a greenhouse gas reduction target for natural gas utilities, voting 2-1 to preserve a 41% cut in use by 2035 despite utility requests for a lower number and environmental groups pushing for more aggressive action.

Commissioners Tom Plant and Megan Gilman defended the benchmark, adopted by the commission last month without legislative mandate or utility agreement, as a requirement for Colorado’s transition away from fossil fuels. Chairman Eric Blank cast the dissenting vote.

The decision addressed applications to reopen the clean heat rules finalized in December.

Plant described the target as a directional tool rather than a rigid obligation that would compel costly steps regardless of practicality.

“The reason my position would be to stick with the 41% (is because) we don’t know what the technologies are going to be between 2030 and 2035. It doesn’t hardwire in that they have to achieve that at any cost,” Plant said.

Gilman agreed that the target offers guidance while preserving flexibility for future approvals.

“The evidence really remains (and) continues to support our prior determination (that) the target is simply a target. We will have to determine what is in the public interest at that point in time,” Gilman said.

The commission also unanimously committed to an interim rulemaking around 2029. The review will consider whether the 2035 target requires adjustment based on technological developments, actual costs and statewide climate progress.

In a related step, the panel updated the 2050 planning goal to emphasize net-zero emissions rather than absolute zero emissions from the natural gas sector.

The refinement recognizes that certain heating and industrial applications may resist full electrification and seeks to prevent overinvestment in potentially obsolete infrastructure. Plant backed the change.

“I would support doing the net zero. State law is actually net zero, which accounts for specifically difficult to electrify (industries),” Plant said.

Gilman endorsed the clarification to encourage careful long-term planning.

“I also am fine with making the clarification. We have to somehow simultaneously also consider that in the system planning so that we don’t basically overinvest in what could be stranded assets,” Gilman said.

Blank joined the 3-0 vote.

The commission acknowledged concerns that the 41% target could lead to overinvestment in gas infrastructure or premature retirements, creating stranded assets — long-lived pipelines and systems that become uneconomic as demand falls due to electrification, but maintained the 41% target, citing a desire to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

In the proceeding documents, the Utility Consumer Advocate argued high targets risk “wasteful investment, asset stranding, and unjustified costs to ratepayers,” while Xcel highlighted the potential for a mismatch between what the utility plans and builds today and what the real-world future actually looks like years from now if technologies do not advance as expected.