{"id":1727,"date":"2010-06-03T13:28:28","date_gmt":"2010-06-03T19:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/?p=1727"},"modified":"2010-06-03T23:24:23","modified_gmt":"2010-06-04T05:24:23","slug":"city-council-gives-xcel-another-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/?p=1727","title":{"rendered":"City Council Gives Xcel Another Chance &#8211; Updated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/valmont4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1450\" title=\"valmont4\" src=\"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/valmont4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"341\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/valmont4.jpg 341w, https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/valmont4-199x300.jpg 199w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 341px) 100vw, 341px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The bold attitude City Council brandished toward Xcel Energy at its <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/2010\/04\/20\/council-takes-bold-step-towards-decarbonization\/\" target=\"_blank\">April 13, 2010 study session<\/a> fizzled somewhat during Tuesday night&#8217;s City Council meeting.\u00a0 Following Council member Ken Wilson&#8217;s lead, the City  Council moved the 20-year franchise agreement ahead, despite the  fact that it is missing key concessions on renewable energy.<\/p>\n<p>A first reading of the ordinance putting the franchise agreement on the November ballot was on the Council\u2019s June 1, 2010 consent agenda (requiring no public hearing) but was pulled off by Council member Morzel.\u00a0 Pulling an item off the consent agenda gives the public a chance to weigh in before Council votes on the item.\u00a0 And weigh in they did.\u00a0 Steve Pomerance, Leslie Glustrom, Dan McGuire, Micah Parkin, Shirley Jin, Ken Bonetti, Julie Zahniser, Dan Friedlander, Alison Burchell, Ken Regelson and Greg Ching all testified on the issue.\u00a0 The arguments for not advancing the franchise agreement put forward by the public included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It isn\u2019t wise to sign a 20-year agreement in a political and technological environment that is undergoing rapid change.<\/li>\n<li>The City should consider how expensive it will be to be locked into current technologies.<\/li>\n<li>The franchise agreement negotiations should be open to the public so that the considerable expertise of Boulder citizens can be engaged.<\/li>\n<li>Boulder should have as much freedom as possible to determine its own energy mix.<\/li>\n<li>Boulder should be creative and look to a diverse mix of smaller sources such as methane, solar and small-scale hydro.<\/li>\n<li>A diverse energy mix will provide more security and reliability.<\/li>\n<li>Boulder could take advantage of this opportunity to become a leader in clean technology.<\/li>\n<li>Boulder is weakening its negotiating position by advancing a 20-year commitment to Xcel.<\/li>\n<li>Municipalization (the City taking control of its own energy supply mix) should be on the table.<\/li>\n<li>The basis for Xcel\u2019s Windsource pricing is impossible to determine.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Representatives of Xcel were also on hand to offer their input.\u00a0 Craig Eicher, Xcel\u2019s Area Manager, said that the franchise agreement doesn\u2019t restrict Boulder\u2019s options \u2013 it\u2019s the state that is restricting the options.\u00a0 He believes that negotiations have been productive and that the franchise agreement should be put on the ballot for the citizens to decide.\u00a0 He also commented that Windsource is available now and the City could become 100% Windsource powered if it wanted to.\u00a0 Jerome Davis, Xcel\u2019s Director of Community Relations, thanked the City staff for their hard work and urged the Council to move the agreement along.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This is like saying, if you want to  be green, just go buy a Tesla.\u00a0 <em><\/em><br \/>\n<em>Leslie Glustrom, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cleanenergyaction.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Clean Energy Action<\/a><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Council deliberations began with a motion by Wilson, seconded by Council member Karakehian, to authorize the City staff to put the franchise agreement on the November 2, 2010 ballot.\u00a0 Wilson stated that his objective in making the motion was to keep the City\u2019s options open.\u00a0 Karakehian agreed, saying that advancing the agreement past first reading is not the same as endorsement.\u00a0 Council members Ageton and Becker argued that, as advised by Acting City Attorney David Gehr, first reading needed to pass in order to keep alive the possibility of putting the issue on the ballot in the Fall, and that this would allow 60 days to negotiate \u201cside agreements\u201d with Xcel that would stipulate the proportion of renewable energy\u00a0 in the Boulder portfolio.\u00a0 Council member Appelbaum suggested that there is no chance that this can or will get done in a 60-day time-frame.<\/p>\n<p>At its <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/2010\/04\/20\/council-takes-bold-step-towards-decarbonization\/\" target=\"_blank\">April 13 meeting<\/a>, Council unanimously agreed to direct staff to ask Xcel for a 1 or 2 year extension of the franchise agreement past its expiration date on August 3.\u00a0 In a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/XcelResponse.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">May 6 letter<\/a>, Xcel indicated that it was not interested in a franchise extension.\u00a0 Xcel was then asked if it would provide a franchise extension until the end of 2010.\u00a0 Xcel responded that it would provide an answer on June 3. \u00a0Deferring an answer until after the City had voted on first reading was an issue that raised the ire of a number of Council members.\u00a0 Appelbaum said, \u201cXcel is conveniently taking advantage of their leverage.\u201d \u00a0Morzel observed that this was normal Xcel strategy and that, \u201cIt takes two to tango.\u00a0 Xcel needs to tango better.\u201d\u00a0 On the other side, Becker said that she wanted the City to show willingness to give Xcel some certainty.\u00a0 \u201cWe have to step forward,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Wilson and Becker suggested that putting the franchise agreement on the ballot would let the voters decide.\u00a0 Appelbaum and Council member Gray cautioned that Xcel could easily outspend community groups advocating for clean energy and that \u201cXcel could play rough if they want to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wilson\u2019s motion passed 6 to 3, with Appelbaum, Gray and Morzel opposed.<\/p>\n<p>When sought out for reaction, Clean Energy Action founder Glustrom, surrounded by decarbonization tech team members, said, \u201cI\u2019m pleased that the City Council recognized significant progress is needed in order to have an agreement that is worthy to be put on the ballot.\u00a0 They also recognized the need for citizen involvement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Regarding Windsource and Xcel representatives\u2019 statements that the City could buy 100% Windsource if they wanted to, Glustrom and other members of her team pointed out that the Windsource pricing is too high.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pvrea.com\/programs\/greenpower\/index.html\">The Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association has just lowered the cost of green power to its customers to $0.09 per 100 KWH block<\/a>.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.xcelenergy.com\/SiteCollectionDocuments\/docs\/psco_elec_entire_tariff.pdf\">Xcel imposes a $2.16 adjustment for the same unit of Windsource energy<\/a>. \u00a0\u201cThis is like saying, if you want to be green, just go buy a Tesla,\u201d said Glustrom.<\/p>\n<p>Council will take up the issue again on Thursday, June 3, 2010 in a study session. According to a City press release, the study session will include updates on ongoing franchise negotiations with Xcel Energy and staff findings about alternatives to a franchise agreement.\u00a0 The energy future study session is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. The session will take place in City Council Chambers and will be broadcast live on Channel 8.<\/p>\n<p>A memo has been prepared for council on this topic and is available on a new City-maintained website dedicated to the issue of Boulder\u2019s energy future. This site can be found at: <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bouldercolorado.gov\/energyfuture\">http:\/\/www.bouldercolorado.gov\/energyfuture<\/a><\/span>. Information will be updated here as it becomes available.<\/p>\n<p>UPDATE:\u00a0 This afternoon (June 3, 2010), Xcel <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/ExtensionAgreementbetweenXcelandBoulder.PDF\" target=\"_blank\">sent a letter<\/a> to City Manager Jane Brautigam stating that they would be willing to extend the existing franchise agreement beyond its August expiration date to December 31, 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The bold attitude City Council brandished toward Xcel Energy at its April 13, 2010 study session fizzled somewhat during Tuesday night&#8217;s City Council meeting.\u00a0 Following Council member Ken Wilson&#8217;s lead, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[11,45,134,101],"class_list":["post-1727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dot-gov","tag-city-council","tag-energy","tag-windsource","tag-xcel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1727"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1772,"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727\/revisions\/1772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}