Opinion: Decision time for our energy future
On Tuesday night, the City Council will make a very important decision — given the goal of having a cleaner energy future with more stable prices, should Boulder investigate whether creating a municipal electric utility would be better than committing to a 20-year franchise with Xcel? The council may decide that Boulder should fully evaluate running our own electric distribution system, like Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Longmont, Loveland, Estes Park, Lyons and many other Colorado cities do. This could provide more renewable energy, give us more local control, minimize the effect of escalating fossil fuel prices, and help both Boulder and the state toward a greener future. If the council decides to keep this option open, we will likely see a Five Year Utility Excise Tax on the ballot in November. This tax will replace the Xcel “franchise fee” for long enough that the city can fully research the alternatives. So it`s clear, the Xcel “franchise fee” is not paid by Xcel. It is a