When the Colorado city of Fort Collins committed to achieving 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030, it was the broad public support -- and attainability -- of that goal that moved six out of seven councilmembers to vote “yes.” On the night of the vote in October 2018, “dozens of people filled the council chambers” and called on Fort Collins city councilmembers to chart a path for Fort Collins’s clean energy future.
Just nine months before the vote, the city of Longmont committed to its own goal of achieving 100 percent clean energy by 2030. Along with sharing the same commitment to 100 percent clean energy, the cities of Fort Collins and Longmont share a regional electric power provider. That utility -- Platte River Power Authority (PRPA) -- serves the cities of Fort Collins, Longmont, Loveland, and Estes Park. After more than a year of community-member campaigning from all four cities, PRPA committed to its own goal of achieving a 100 percent noncarbon resource mix by 2030. Next, the cities of Estes Park and Loveland passed resolutions supporting PRPA’s goal.
Members of the Fort Collins Energy Action Team meet to kick off the 2020 campaign to retire the Rawhide coal plant!
Fast forward to March of 2020 and PRPA is in the process of finalizing its long-term energy plan, or integrated resource plan (IRP). With just 10 years until the 2030 clean energy target, PRPA’s IRP is critical to achieving the 100 percent renewable energy goals set by the utility and the cities it serves. Despite this, PRPA still has no definite plans to retire its 280-megawatt Rawhide coal plant. In fact, only two of its four remaining energy portfolio options even retire Rawhide by 2030. Currently, Rawhide is not slated to retire until 2046 -- 16 years after the 2030 target. PRPA is even considering building a new gas plant in 2036, despite city commitments to achieving 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030.
Fortunately, PRPA’s IRP is a window of opportunity for residents of all four cities to call on PRPA to honor its member cities' commitments to 100 percent renewable electricity and retire the Rawhide coal plant. Community members are also calling on PRPA to commit to not building any new fracked gas plants, which would burden communities with fossil fuel debt and hinder the achievement of any 100 percent renewable goals. They demand that PRPA consider the social cost of carbon in the planning process, meaning that it would have to account for the true costs climate change imposes on northern Coloradans -- like paying for cleanup after natural disasters or for repairing infrastructure weakened by extreme weather. Unlike investor-owned utilities such as Xcel Energy or Black Hills, PRPA is not required by the state to factor a social cost of carbon of $46 per ton in its resource planning. But including the social cost of carbon in resource planning is essential to account for the community health, environmental, and economic burdens of continuing to burn fossil fuels.
Community members in northern Colorado can do many things to make their voices heard through this process, but with PRPA’s IRP wrapping up by June, the window of opportunity is closing.
Take action now:
- Sign the petition calling on PRPA to chart the path to northern Colorado’s clean energy future!
- Email your city councilmember & Mayor asking them to hold PRPA accountable to the city & utility 100 percent renewable goals! Find their contact information here.
- Have a question or want to get more involved? Reach out to Sierra Club Beyond Coal organizer Sarah Snead at sarah.snead@sierraclub.org or 443-974-6291.