State lawmakers try to rein in costs

State lawmakers Tuesday unveiled an effort to rein in Coloradans’ rising utility bills following months of investigating how investor-owned electricity and natural gas providers, like Xcel Energy and Black Hills Energy, operate and how their finances work. 

The measure, Senate Bill 291, has three principal goals: limiting the impact of rising natural gas prices on consumers, increasing transparency in electric and gas rate cases, and trying to reduce expensive natural gas investments long term. Many of the changes would be made through Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission, which regulates the state’s investor-owned utilities, and take a year or more to affect Coloradans’ energy costs.

The legislation is the result of work by a joint select committee in the…