Natural gas: the preferred partner of renewables: advanced hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques have made natural gas more accessible and inexpensive than ever. Buying wind and solar time to develop.

The "New Energy Economy" touted by Bill Ritter during his successful run for governor of Colorado in 2006 may yet materialize, but some seven years later it's become apparent that if the strictly renewable component of that new-energy, mix takes shape, it will be decades from now, not years. The great expectations of renewable energy--particularly wind and solar--have been tempered by cutbacks in federal funding, the high-profile default by California solar company Solyndra on a $535 million federal loan guarantee in September 201 1, and other bankruptcies anti layoffs by solar and wind enterprises in Colorado and nationwide.

Still, the gains made by non-hydropower renewables prove they are worth investing in, and the promise they hold helps make the case for those who argue that natural gas can serve as a bridge fuel to renewables, buying them time to develop. Natural gas has also been touted as the preferred fuel source to back-fill the times when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing.

Renewables have yet to develop robust energy storage systems. so given that rolling blackouts are not an option, a back-up is needed. Natural gas power can be turned on and on-relatively quickly to adjust to Colorado's ever-changing weather and is a much cleaner option than coal.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that by 2014 wind power will contribute more than 4 percent of total electricity generation and that generation of solar energy Will continue to experience robust growth, though its share of total U.S. generation will remain small, about 0,3 percent of total generation by 2014. Still, even those projections leave 95 percent of U.S. energy needs to other sources.

Wind, solar, biomass and other renewables figure to advance with continued research and development and economies of scale that come with widespread adoption. But some people, including Ritter, have made the ease that natural gas, made cheap and abundant by advances in hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling, is not merely a bridge Fuel, but a "foundation filer with long-term advantages over electricity sources such as coal in terms of cost and lower carbon dioxide emissions.

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In addressing attendees of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association conference in July 2009, Ritter told the crowd, "Natural gas is a vital part of the New Energy Economy. It is a permanent part of the New Energy Economy. It's not a bridge fuel, not a transition...