The whole story
Back in 2011, our community did something no other community had ever done before: we voted to explore taking control of our power supply for the sole purpose of lowering our impact on the planet. Xcel Energy spent nearly $1 million dollars on that election, but lost--because a committed group of community advocates and a small nonprofit that engages young people in politics won the day. Outspent 10-to-1, the grassroots coalition registered voters, knocked on doors, and made thousands of phone calls.
With voter approval, the city launched an extensive analysis and found that it could get cleaner, cheaper power that was just as reliable all on its own.
But now, Xcel is back, with a misleading initiative they’ve helped place on Boulder’s fall ballot that would stop the city’s formation of a local electric utility dead in its tracks. Their ballot measure is masquerading as a way to reduce government debt, but it’s really just a dirty trick--the measure includes impossible, even illegal, requirements that would stall out the very process voters already approved.
They’re back to undermine our local process, because the city’s findings made it clear that they stand to lose more than the $35 million dollars in profits they make annually from Boulder. They know that Boulder is on the verge of setting a precedent of national significance that would threaten not just Xcel, but the very core of the coal energy’s business model--not to mention that industry’s billions of dollars in profits.
We out-organized them in 2011, and we know we can again in 2013 if we have the resources to achieve the reach we need. Boulder has already voted to move forward--this fight is about keeping the coal industry from holding us back.
Our campaign
This grassroots campaign is going to need a lot more resources than the goal we’ve set for this Indiegogo. But our goal is what we need to get our efforts off the ground in a strong way to make sure our movement lays the groundwork it needs to win in November.
Your donation today will ensure our success tomorrow.
The only way we’ll be able to counter the money Xcel Energy is likely poised to dump in our community on a fear campaign is with grassroots organizing. Because the only way to counter money in politics is with people. Your funding will help us:
- Train young community organizers to recruit volunteers and build climate leaders to connect with voters
- Register to vote and turn out thousands of voters leading up to Election Day on November 5th
- Run large-scale door-to-door canvasses and phonebanks where our volunteer base will talk to voters one by one
- Develop a message and produce effective materials that break through Xcel’s well-orchestrated and expensive fear campaign
- Produce ads and communications that get our message out there in a clear, persuasive voice
- Host events throughout the community to get the real facts out there
- Run a creative non-traditional campaign to ensure voters clearly understand this is just another example of how corporations undermine our democracy to protect their profits
Please note, contributions to this campaign will be counted as a contribution to New Era's city issue committee, Voters Against Xcel Buying Elections. Your name and information will be recorded as a donor to our issue committee.
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Resources
City of Boulder's site with data on municipalization studies
Coalition website with lots more information & data
New Era Colorado Foundation
FAQ & mythbusting from City of Boulder
About Us
New Era Colorado Foundation is an innovative vehicle for hands-on democracy. We engage, educate, and train a new generation of active citizens and young leaders in Colorado.
We provide the resources and tools for young people to gain collective power in the political process. We're grassroots. We're nonpartisan. And we're all about empowering our generation to lead Colorado not left, not right, but forward. We do it all with one constant: making politics fun again. And yes, it's often on a bus.
So what are you waiting for? Get on the bus!
Press
NYTimes
"Cities Weigh Taking Over From Private Utilities"
"Colorado: Boulder Votes to Remove Power Company"
"In Colorado, a Power Struggle With the Power Company"
Boulder Daily Camera
"Boulder municipalization: Staff recommends proceeding with creation of city utility"
"Xcel Energy admits links to Boulder group pushing 2nd municipalization vote"
Huffington Post
"Boulder's Quest to Municipalize -- From Independence Day to the Next Election"
"Twenty-Somethings of Colorado With Skin in the Game"
Grist
"When is it time to break up with your utility?"
FAQs
What is “Municipalization”?
Municipalization is when a community owns the electrical
utility. The utility would hire an experienced company to operate it, at
least initially. But the city would have the local decision-making power to
choose what kind of energy it purchases on the open market.
Are there other municipal utilities?
Twenty-nine Colorado communities, including Longmont, Fort
Collins, and Colorado Springs, have successfully run municipal electric systems
for decades. There are thousands of municipal utilities across the country, but
none of them municipalized for the purposes of lowering their greenhouse gas
emissions and investing in more renewable energy.
Who would the City have run Boulder’s municipal electric system?
The City would most likely
contract with a company that is experienced with setting up and running an
electric distribution system day-to-day. The City utility would purchase power
from one or more independent power producers. It can use the competitive free
market to get the best price on power from sources that minimize their
environmental impact. The City would select a Utility Board with citizens,
customers and business representatives plus a director, experienced with
electric utilities, to oversee the contractor(s).
What would happen to electricity rates?
The city's charter language states that the city is not allowed
to move forward with municipalizing unless if it can do so while keeping rates
the same or better than Xcel Energy. This means customers will be provided with
cleaner, renewable energy and not have to pay more for it.
The best calculations
currently available, from the phase-1 (and soon to be released phase-2)
modeling by the City experts, based on a range of assumptions and more likely
scenarios, and with over 50% CO2 reduction from Xcel’s current emissions and
50% to 60% renewables (vs. Xcel’s 24% renewables, currently, and its 38% coal,
in 2030, as shown in Xcel’s 2011 electric resource plan).
These show that there are city options that not only are very likely to
beat Xcel’s rates on day one of the City utility, but also beat them on average
over 20 years. Whether or not this will be the result of the final
analysis does require a certain range of the most likely startup costs, but
that is exactly why the process should continue. We cannot know if a City
utility is financially acceptable unless we know the startup costs and we can
only know these if we complete the exploration so we can make a decision.
The bottom line is that your bill will be basically the same or better.
What about renewables? How much could we get?
The City’s Phase-1 modeling suggests that we could get 58%
renewables and 54% CO2 reduction almost immediately while remaining cost
competitive if we have reasonable startup costs or this might be delayed a bit
while we transition out of the Xcel system. The generation mix would
include backup electricity from natural gas as well as growing amounts of wind
and solar, increasing the proportion of renewables as they make economic sense.
(We can use gas as a backup fuel and could find the cleanest source of
gas energy or work to replace it with more renewable sources like gas from
bio-char or bio-mass.)
Electricity from natural gas produces less CO2 per kilowatt-hour
than electricity from coal, assuming there is little or no leakage in
production of the gas and the gas is burned completely. So, our carbon
footprint can be reduced as soon as we switch from Xcel’s generation mix, if we
require our gas suppliers to certify their leakage rates are very low and ethically
produced. As it becomes economic, we can then transfer to renewable
alternatives to replace natural gas as fast as possible, using bio-gas or some
other sustainable fuel source, and use of gas will drop even faster.
While the City utility’s use of natural gas decreases over time in its
plans, Xcel’s 2011 electric resource plan (ERP) shows an increasing reliance on
natural-gas-generated energy that climbs to 52% natural gas by 2037 and because
lowest price is the what the PUC (Public Utility Commission) prioritizes, it is
unlikely that the leakage or ethics of the production of natural gas will be
considered in contracts.
With a backup of natural
gas, renewables could be added fairly easily to our generation mix as they
become increasingly economical and available.
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How much could we cut our CO2 emissions?
Phase-1 modeling by City experts suggests that a municipal utility could achieve 54% CO2 reduction and 58% renewables initially while not exceeding Xcel Energy’s current cost for its mix of only 23.1% renewables in 2017 and 24.4% in 2037, according to Xcel’s 2011 plan
