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Under the agreement, Xcel had to disclose the financial risks of lawsuits and of federal or state court decisions that would affect its business. The company will also analyze and disclosed the “material financial risks” to itself associated with climate change.<ref name="Confessore"/>
==Plans to shut down Arapahoe Generating Station , Cameo, and Cameo Cherokee Generating StationStations==
In August 2008, Colorado regulators approved Xcel’s plan to shut down two coal plants: the [[Arapahoe Station|Arapahoe Generating Station]] (Denver) and the [[Cameo Station]] (east of Grand Junction). According to Western Resource Advocates, "The utility’s decision to shut down the plants has been praised as the nation’s first voluntary effort to cut coal power generation in an attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In its decision to support Xcel’s plan, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) cited public health benefits and shared concerns about carbon emissions as major selling-points in the company’s groundbreaking proposal. The verdict marks a collective effort to move the state and its utilities toward the carbon reduction goals outlined in Governor Bill Ritter’s Climate Action Plan."<ref name="RRA">[http://www.westernresourceadvocates.org/energy/coal/cleanenergyaccomplishments.php "Clean Energy Accomplishments,"] Western Resrouce Advocates, accessed April 2009</ref>
Xcel plans to replace the combined 229 MW of coal power with 850 MW of wind power and a 200 MW utility-scale solar power plant with storage capacity by 2015. Another key component of Xcel’s proposal, to build a 480 MW natural gas plant at the Arapahoe station, has been postponed pending approval by the Colorado PUC.<ref name="RRA"/>
The [[Cherokee Station]] 4 coal-fired plant is also scheduled to be shuttered in 2022. However, Xcel Energy announced in November 2010 its intent to close the plant, located north of Denver, in 2017, five years earlier than expected. The change of plans comes on the heels of the recently enacted Colorado Clean Air-Clean Jobs Act. As part of the legislation, Xcel receives financial incentives in exchange for a $1.3billion program of phasing out coal-fueled plants in favor of [[natural gas]]. The program targets plants in Boulder and Denver for conversion while facilities in Brush and Hayden would be upgraded to reduce pollution.<ref>Maryalene LaPonsie, [http://www.utilitiesjobsblog.com/ "Green energy jobs are coming to Colorado"] Utilities, Nov. 8, 2010.</ref>
==Xcel promises to cut Colorado pollution by 2017==
