Colorado lies at the intersection of the best wind and solar resources in the U.S., and Boulder has shown tremendous grit in its epic battle to use more of these low carbon resources to generate its electricity.
In a filing earlier this month with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, Boulder laid out a detailed plan that would grant Boulder independence from its current utility provider, Xcel Energy.
The separation petition is the next step in Boulder’s long-running effort to municipalize its electric utility, address climate change, and decarbonize, democratize and decentralize its electricity supply while helping build a utility of the future.
Municipalization of electric systems dates to the early 20th century, when communities across the U.S. fought for control of their electric supply. Hundreds of communities took part in that movement to create publicly owned electric utilities (similar to most communities’ water utilities). Other communities, including Boulder, ended up being served by for-profit investor-owned utilties like Xcel, with franchise agreements that typically last for 20 years.
To protect the right of communities to regain control of their electric utility, many states, including Colorado, constitutionally allow municipalization through the condemnation of assets of investor-owned utilities. That is the process Boulder is currently undertaking.
HERE’S A GOOD PLACE TO INVOKE THE MEMORY OF FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, WHO STOOD UP FOR RANK-AND-FILED communities in his famous 1932 ‘Birch Rod’ Speech:
“Where a community, a city, or county, or district is not satisfied with the service rendered or the rates charged by the private utility, it has the undeniable right as one of its functions of government … to set up … its own governmentally owned and operated service … the very fact that a community can, by vote of the electorate, create a yardstick of its own will, in most cases, guarantees good service and low rates to its population. I might call the right of the people to own and operate their own utility a birch rod in the cupboard, to be taken out and used only when the child gets beyond the point where more scolding does any good.”
Well said, Mr. Roosevelt.
When a community’s franchise agreement with its investor-owned utility comes to an end, many communities consider the possibility of taking control of their own electric supply. Given the financial and political strength of investor-owned utilities, not many communities make it very far down this road, however.
Boulder, along with a handful of other cities including Winter Park, Fla., which successfully municipalized in 2005, is one that has managed to hold onto its dream in the face of the often-overwhelming opposition from investor-owned utilities.
Xcel executives often argue that the company has earned its stripes and that it deserves to maintain its franchise. But Boulder citizens like me think Xcel is doing the equivalent of C- work in a class of D and F students. The competition is negligible, in other words. And while a promise to generate 30 percent of our electricity from renewable energy is a good start, we have a long way to go
XCEL ALSO HAS SOME HISTORY THAT RANKLES. THE COMPANY STRONGLY OPPOSED THE 2004 CITIZEN-LED INITIATIVE THAT ENACTED COLORADO’S FIRST RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARD, and then, realizing that RPS compliance was both popular and not very difficult, went on to support two subsequent legislative efforts to increase the Colorado’s RPS for investor-owned utilities to 30 percent. As a result, Xcel is on its way to 30 percent compliance (which can be achieved with less than 30 percent production renewables with various accounting tweaks).
Nonetheless, many Colorado citizens have long chafed at the double life led by Xcel in Colorado, where the company is also insisting on spending more than $1 billion to build the new Comanche 3 coal plant that came on line in 2010 (and scheduled to operate until 2069). Xcel is also spending over $400 million on old coal plants across the state while opposing Colorado’s successful net-metering policy, which promotes the growth of solar. Xcel’s unwillingness to be more progressive sparked Boulder’s municipalization campaign about a decade ago.
Now, having received ballot-box support for three elections in a row and having completed hundreds of modeling analyses, the City of Boulder is confident that it can greatly increase its reliance on renewable energy and cut its greenhouse-gas emissions from electricity by more than half. The city knows it can do all of this at a cost that meets or beats Xcel’s and that likely saves millions of dollars in fuel expenses.
Our separation-plan proceedings are expected to take about a year and only when they are done will we know whether the Colorado Public Utilities Commission will honor Boulder’s constitutional right to create a municipal utility worthy of the 21st century.
There’s no good reason for the commission to issue a decision that keeps Boulder captive to Xcel’s fossil-fuel business model.
Leslie Glustrom is one of the co-founders of Boulder-based Clean Energy Action.
