Beware of limited time offers
Act Now! Limited Time Offer! Whenever a business creates an artificial sense of urgency to get you to buy something, it’s because you’d find it’s not worth it if you had time to think about it. The business is creating a false sense of scarcity and trying to get you to make a snap judgment. That’s how it is with the Xcel Energy franchise agreement and Ballot Measure 2C. Supporters want you to think this is the best deal we can get.
But it’s not. Our leverage will only increase with time because electricity prices continue to drop everywhere else. Xcel just wants to lock us into their higher rates and dirty energy so the company doesn’t have to do the right thing, which is pay for its bad decisions itself and give us cheaper, cleaner electricity like the rest of the market is providing.
If we enter franchise, we lose all of our leverage and the ability to get that cheaper, cleaner energy, from them or someone else. Say “no” to 2C, dirty energy, and high rates and let’s keep our focus on the real crisis, the climate emergency. We won’t beat it if we’re tied to Xcel.
BRIAN HIGHLAND
Boulder
Xcel makes a profit is never contrasted with the combined profits to be made by our Wall Street bondholders, “green” energy suppliers, and connected local insiders.
This type of disingenuous promotion, combined with our best-in-class overspending talent that required Boulder to furlough more employees during the pandemic than any other city in Colorado, will undoubtedly create a spectacular short circuit with a flash visible from Kansas. It is inconceivable that an organization that experiences significant difficulty with keeping simple asphalt streets in passable condition will be able to oversee something as complex as our power distribution system.
Its time to take the upcoming off ramp and make a hard U-turn back to reality by partnering with Xcel instead of burying the community under hundreds of millions in debt simply for the pleasure of living by candlelight.
JEFF SCHULZ
Boulder
have their ancestral ties to what is now called Boulder recognized through our public lands. An ongoing, mutually beneficial relationship between indigenous nations and the City of Boulder to protect and manage the land near Valmont Butte would give a space to work toward healing.
It would be a place for my daughter to learn how we are connected by our love of this land that we all call home and the responsibilities we have in that connection.
HEATHER BOWLER
Boulder