Tom has turned the conversation into a series of short podcasts that will now air each day leading up to the election. Find the background information here and be sure to subscribe to the podcast and share it with your friends: http://wheelhouseassociates.com/Wheelhouse/Podcast/Podcast.html

By Blake Jones
Posted: 10/13/2011

Regarding Boulder’s energy future and ballot initiatives 2B and 2C, I encourage us to consider the question, “After the vote in November, what’s the next step?”

If we vote “yes” on 2B and 2C, the next step will be to further evaluate the option of creating our own municipal utility. If this option is determined to be financially practical and passes the city’s tests — same or lower rates than Xcel Energy, same or better reliability, an additional 25 percent cushion for making debt payments, and a plan for more renewable energy — then the city can proceed down that path. If this option does not pass all of those tests, then the city would not be able to proceed with municipalization without making changes or getting voter approval.

On the other hand, what happens if we vote “no” on 2B and 2C? We would need to resume negotiations with Xcel for another 20-year franchise agreement. But without other options, how strong would our negotiating position be? Would we really be able to get Xcel to provide a plan that meets the city’s goals? Unfortunately, Xcel’s track record indicates otherwise. In the franchise agreement negotiations between the city and Xcel prior to November 2010, Xcel repeatedly failed to present a plan that helped address the City’s goals, despite continual requests from the city. Xcel is a regulated monopoly and is less accustomed to competing for its customers.

Only when voters passed last year’s 2B ballot initiative (by a resounding 2-to-1 margin) did Xcel finally get the message that it needed to try harder to win us as a long-term customer. So, based on the positive outcome that resulted from passing last year’s 2B, how would voting “no” on this year’s 2B and 2C help us negotiate better terms with Xcel? I’ve concluded that it won’t, and instead, voting “no” would severely weaken our negotiating position.

As a local business owner and a member of the Chamber of Commerce, I was disappointed to see the chamber come out against 2B and 2C. Boulder is negotiating with a monopoly vendor for the annual purchase of over $100 million of electricity services, and its a good business practice to keep this option on the table to strengthen our bargaining position.

Even from the perspective of wanting the city to sign another 20-year agreement with Xcel, voting “yes” for 2B and 2C will increase the chances that we get a win-win deal from Xcel. Let’s keep our options open by passing 2B and 2C.

Blake Jones is an employee-owner and the CEO of Boulder-based Namaste Solar and a member of the Boulder Clean Energy Business Coalition.

The Boulder Green Building Guild fully supports Ballot Initiatives 2B and 2C.

We strongly encourage City of Boulder voters to approve both measures to provide the City with the ability to gather the information necessary to make the most informed decisions possible and to keep the City’s options open as they strive to meet clean
energy goals.

In order to meet these goals we believe that additional strategies are necessary to encourage more investments than currently exist in demand side management (energy efficiency) and renewable energy sources.

At this time there is insufficient information to know if municipalization is a desirable path, or if a meaningful partnership with Xcel might prove to be a better choice.  Passing 2B and 2C is the only way that the City of Boulder can fully understand all the options available in their essential work towards protecting the interests of our community and future generations.

We look forward to seeing a variety of choices to design and negotiate our power, including potential alternative proposals from Xcel, as outcomes of the passage of Ballot Initiatives 2B & 2C.

About BGBG

The Boulder Green Building Guild (BGBG) is an association of building professionals dedicated to promoting healthier, resource-efficient homes and workplaces. Since 2004 the non-profit organization has grown to over 600 members. Our vision is to empower people to build healthy, resource-efficient communities. For more information on membership, events and involvement go to www.bgbg,org.

In offering his endorsement, Hayes said, “The most innovative utilities in the nation are municipal utilities: Austin, Eugene, Seattle, Sacramento.  I’d expect Boulder will follow (or lead) the munis, and it will give Colorado an independent standard against which to measure Xcel.  The utility scare stories about the cost and the evils of public power are even less valid than the arguments against health care reform.  I trust Boulder voters will see through it.”

The Boulder Clean Energy Business Coalition formed to assist the city council and the public evaluate options for the City’s utility future. Members of the Coalition come from the business community in Boulder and share a commitment to achieving a responsible and sustainable energy future that will nurture economic expansion and entrepreneurial activity for the Boulder community.  Businesses are invited to join the Coalition by visiting www.giveboulderthepower.org and all voters to join us in supporting 2B and 2C on this November’s ballot.

The Boulder Chamber’s board voted last week not to endorse two Boulder ballot issues that would allow the city to break from Xcel Energy and form a municipal electric utility.

The chamber’s position puts them in the company of Boulder Tomorrow — a group that aims to support the long-term economic vitality of Boulder Valley — which has also voted against supporting ballot measures 2B and 2C.

But not all businesses agree. A third business group, the Boulder Clean Energy Business Coalition, which formed solely to investigate the options for Boulder’s energy future, decided earlier this month to support the two measures.

Adequate represenatation

Angelique Espinoza, public affairs manager for the Boulder Chamber, said Friday that the chamber’s decision not to endorse 2B and 2C doesn’t reflect a unified feeling among businesses that creating a municipal utility is the wrong route for Boulder under all circumstances. But it does reflect a fairly unified concern about how the two measures on November’s ballot would go about setting up the new utility.

“There are members — and people in leadership in the chamber — who are all over the map,” she said. “For some people, they just think municipalization is a bad idea period. Some people feel like we’ve got to municipalize.”

But the common ground, Espinoza said, is a concern about the way the utility would be regulated. Industrial and commercial entities now use 82.5 percent of all the electricity consumed in Boulder, but the chamber worries that the businesses and organizations that consume that electricity won’t have enough say in how its provided in a new municipal utility.

“We’re voting (in November) on setting up a very specific structure for how this utility can be governed, and it does not provide any guaranteed representation for the business community,” Espinoza said.

The utility regulation structure proposed in the municipalization ballot measure would create a utilities board to advise the City Council, though council members would ultimately retain the power to make final decisions.

The chamber had proposed earlier this year that the seats on the board be divided by rate class, with four of the nine seats going to customers in the industrial or commercial classes. But the council declined to be that specific, and instead, created proposed rules would make it so at least three board members must be owners or employees of a business or government entity that must purchase electricity from the city.

The chamber is also concerned about general language in the ballot that says the city will use rate parity with other utilities as a guiding principle. Beyond the initial launch of the utility, the guiding principle would not bind future city councils to keeping rates on par with Xcel Energy, which now serves Boulder.

“There’s a lot of guidance, but very little actual limitation,” Espinoza said.

Other priorities

Boulder Tomorrow’s main reason for opposing 2B and 2C is different than the chamber’s, though they share some concerns, according to board chair Gary Horton.

“Boulder Tomorrow has not endorsed 2B and 2C because we felt that there’s other stuff that the city really should be concentrating on,” said Horton, who also serves as the president of Western Disposal. “This is going to be an enormously expensive undertaking and it’s going to take an enormous amount of time by officials at the city.”

Craig Eicher, Boulder area manager for Xcel Energy, serves on boards of both Boulder Tomorrow and the Boulder Chamber, but he abstained from both votes.

Horton points to the need for a new conference center in town as just one example of a project that the city could spend time and money on to make a reality instead of municiplization.

“We would be so much better served if the city would put its efforts into having a better relationship (with the University of Colorado) and trying together to build facilities and research parks,” he said.

The beginning of a process

But not all business leaders agree with the decisions made by Boulder Tomorrow and the Boulder Chamber. Dan King, owner of the Boulder Outlook Hotel & Suites, is on the chamber’s board, but he decided to break with the organization and endorse 2B and 2C.

“There are a lot of legitimate concerns,” said King, who’s also running for City Council. “But I decided to endorse this because I’m endorsing the process. … I think that 2B and 2C lets the process unfold and lets us continue our analysis.”

Even if voters approve the two measures this fall, a future City Council can still decide not to form a municipal utility if the project no longer seams feasible.

The Boulder Clean Energy Business Coalition — which formed in early July to evaluate the energy options available to Boulder — also announced earlier this month that the group would actively campaign for 2B and 2C. The coalition, which has about 50 business endorsements, including Eco-Products, The Boulder Bookstore and Bella Energy, gave some reasons that are similar to King’s.

“We think there’s enough here — that the proposal is valid enough — that we should pursue it,” said former Boulder Mayor Shaun McGrath, co-chair of the coalition. “We continue to have the same concerns about some of the risks that are out there — for example the costs and the reliability — but the city was very smart in the way they structured this in that they have off-ramps.”

McGrath, who is also the executive director of The American Solar Energy Society, said that his coalition does not share the chamber’s concern about representation on a future utility board. Partly, that’s because the coalition argues that customers, both business and residential, will have a greater ability to influence a future City Council than the current Colorado Public Utilities Commission, which regulates Xcel.

“If they appoint a board that’s not representative of the business interests or the community’s interest, then there’s an opportunity to not only change the council, but to go down there any time there’s a council meeting and express concerns,” he said. “By contrast, we are now at the whim of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.”

Contact Camera Staff Writer Laura Snider at 303-473-1327 or sniderl@dailycamera.com.

invites you to join

Former Senator Gary Hart

for cocktails and conversation

about voting YES on 2B & 2C in this fall’s election

 

Thursday, September 29^th, 2011

from 5:30pm until 7:00pm

at the home of

Bob Morehouse & Noel Maye

2225 Grape Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80304

 

Suggested contribution of $100

 

Please RSVP to info@giveboulderthepower.org

or Myriah at 303.938.1042

If you are unable to attend but would like to contribute to the campaign, 

or would like to make your contribution online in advance,

please visit http://giveboulderthepower.org

Guest commentary: More choice for Boulder

Boulder Clean Energy Business Coalition Announces

‘Give Boulder the Power’ Campaign in Support of
Boulder Initiatives 2B and 2C

 Campaign Adds 23 New Coalition Members and Attracts More Than
$13,000 in Campaign Support

 

Boulder, CO — September 14, 2011 – The Boulder Clean Energy Business Coalition today announces its campaign in support of Boulder initiatives 2B and 2C.   The Coalition’s decision is based on its belief that the passage of 2B and 2C will provide the city the tools it needs to advance Boulder’s energy goals in a way that will boost the local economy and create jobs.

The Coalition is led by two energy industry veterans who serve as co-chairs.  Tom Plant, former State Legislator and Director of the Colorado Governor’s energy office and Shaun McGrath, former Mayor of Boulder, City Council Member and Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Relations for the Obama Administration.

“Measures 2B and 2C are fundamentally about choice.  If the measures don’t pass, Boulder will have one option only: Xcel,” warns Tom Plant, Boulder Clean Energy Business Coalition Co-Chair.  “We believe Boulder voters will conclude that the city should have the power to consider a variety of options to design and negotiate a new way of delivering power – one that empowers local decision making for cleaner, more efficient alternatives and at the same time, expands local economic development and makes solid financial sense.

“We believe municipalization offers a legitimate path to meet the city’s goals, and we want the city to be able to continue to do its due diligence in understanding and responding to risks associated with that option,” adds Shaun McGrath, Coalition Co-Chair.

In launching its campaign, the Coalition also announces the addition of 23 new business members bringing formal support to these measures, and more than $13,000 in contributions to be filed with the City.  New members include Eco-Cycle, Namaste Solar, Pangea Organics, Renewable Choice Energy and The Kitchen.

“The ‘Give Boulder the Power’ campaign will demonstrate how passing these measures could benefit Boulder businesses and promote reinvestment in our community,” says Ted Rose, Gravity Renewables President and Campaign Chair.  “These 23 initial companies represent a solid foundation of Boulder business support of 2B and 2C, one we plan to aggressively build off of leading up to this fall’s voting.”

The Boulder Clean Energy Business Coalition formed to assist the city council and the public evaluate options for the City’s utility future. Members of the Coalition come from the business community in Boulder and share a commitment to achieving a responsible and sustainable energy future that will nurture economic expansion and entrepreneurial activity for the Boulder community.  Businesses are invited to join the Coalition by visiting www.giveboulderthepower.org and all voters to join us in supporting 2B and 2C on this November’s ballot.