Municipalization’s pipe dream
We have wasted enough time and money on the municipalization effort and it’s time to end the debacle. That’s why I’m delighted to see the franchise agreement on the ballot in November. Boulder voters should vote for Ballot Measure 2C.
A decade ago, the muni seemed to many people the right thing to do. We could make our own contribution to saving the planet and maybe save some money, too. I wonder how many people actually believed the city could generate power more cheaply with no experience in running a utility and no infrastructure in place to support it, but it was a noble idea.
But times have changed. Xcel Energy has committed to a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2025, 80 percent by 2030. The company is on track for using 55 percent renewable sources by 2026.
And we don’t have to spend a dime more to accomplish this.
We — that is, you and me — have spent $22.8 million on the muni effort in the past decade. And what do we have to show for it? Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
I am no Xcel lover. But it is in the business of generating and delivering energy and does that very well. In the four decades we have lived in Boulder, outages have been few and quickly remedied. I recall the evening when the transformer on the pole behind our house burned out. Xcel was here in under an hour and had power to our house an hour later.
Could the City of Boulder, with no utility experience and no support infrastructure, have done that? Doubt it. In the case of a major storm and power outage, could the city call in out-of-state resources like Xcel has done? I think we all know the answer is no. The city doesn’t have any backup resources.
Critics of the franchise agreement dwell on several things which demand closer inspection. They say it won’t accomplish Boulder’s 2010 resolution to use 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 (a laudable but likely unattainable goal). But Xcel has committed to an 80 percent reduction by 2030. That’s a lot more than another bunch of years of negotiation will get us.
Critics say if we approve the agreement, we are stuck with it and can’t get out of it. Yet if Xcel misses its commitment for a 52 percent reduction by 2022, 61 percent by 2024, or 67 percent by 2027, the city can walk away. The city can terminate for any reason in 2025 and 2030.
By accepting the franchise agreement, we get a lot. Xcel will refund to the city 3 percent of gross revenues, which will go back into the general fund. Xcel will spend $33 million on undergrounding wires.
Xcel will enter a partnership with the city to find innovations for clean power. Xcel will commit to a $200 million condemnation limit for their infrastructure should the muni effort be resumed.
And we don’t have to spend a dime more to accomplish this.
Switching to a municipally operated utility has been accomplished by only 13 cities during the period 2006 to 2016, and they all had populations of fewer than 10,000 people. We’ve spent a lot of money on a pipe dream.
Think of how much better off we’d be if we spent $22.8 million on health and human services, our parks, affordable housing, and other things that would improve our lives. Critics also feel that the franchise agreement is not optimal. Do we want to spend more money on legal maneuvering?
I’m very concerned about climate change. We have been recycling and composting for decades. We drive a hybrid. We have solar on our roof. If the city spends $300 million to $800 million to take over the utility, it will not help global warming at all.
Convincing people around us to conserve energy in heating and cooling their homes, to ride the bus instead of single-occupant driving, to recycle those piles of beer bottles after the weekend instead of trashing them, to have businesses recycle their waste, we could reduce our impact on the environment and set an example for other cities around the nation to help us all hold back climate change.