Colorado’s “Green Grid” Can’t Be an Excuse to Bulldoze Ranch Country

When a utility sues its way onto pastures before it earns local permits, that’s not progress—it’s a breach of trust.

Out on the high grass of Elbert and El Paso counties, the story is simple: families who stewarded these rangelands for generations woke up to find their fences on the wrong side of a statewide crusade. Xcel Energy’s 345-kV Colorado Power Pathway—marketed as climate progress and reliability—hit a wall where the “public good” meets private dirt. Ranchers said no. County planners said not yet. And before the dust settled, the state’s largest utility marched into court to force entry onto people’s land. That sequence says everything.