Moab residents, including Utah Chapter chair Marc Thomas (in blue t-shirt) gather at Moab City Hall for a ribbon-cutting ceremony and press conference celebrating the city's clean energy resolution and the installation of new solar panels at City Hall.
The Planet is remiss in neglecting to wish a Happy Valentine’s Day to the city of Moab, Utah, on February 14—the day the Moab City Council unanimously approved a resolution committing the city to getting 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2032.
Moab’s civic commitment came about as the result of a partnership between the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign and the Climate Reality Project (CRP), founded by former vice-president Al Gore. “CRP worked the policy and technical side and provided background info to the city council while the Sierra Club worked on building grassroots support,” says Lindsay Beebe, an organizer with the Club’s Beyond Coal campaign.
Volunteers with the Club’s Utah Chapter and staff organizers with Beyond Coal teamed up with Ready for 100 activists to get local residents on board and recruit them to hold potlucks with clean renewable energy themes, take part in letter-writing events, participate in a clean energy workshop with the city council, and speak out in support of the 100% Renewable Energy Resolution in the council’s chambers. The resolution passed by a vote of 4-0.
“Moab sits at the epicenter of Utah’s thriving recreation economy,” Beebe says. “It’s the jumping-off point for mountain bikers, backpackers, red-rock canyoneers, and river runners from all over the world. The Moab City Council passed this resolution in order to protect the public lands and environment that make this part of Utah so special.”
Recreation and tourism is a $12 billion industry in Utah, and Moab, as the gateway to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, is a major driver of that economic sector.
Council member Kalen Jones told the Moab Times-Independent that cities like Moab “are small enough to be nimble, but big enough to make a difference.” Fellow council member Rani Derasary thanked the community for its support and engagement with the issue, saying she’d received more than 50 emails and several letters, and the council received a letter of support signed by more than 20 local businesses.
“I know some people in the community have concerns,” Derasary told the Times-Independent, “but the prices are going down for wind and solar energy, and we’re trying to take advantage of that. I would just ask that everybody who’s been supportive, hold our feet to the fire [and] remind the people sitting up here … to keep this thing moving along.”
Below, Marc Thomas, solar developers, and members of the Moab City Council pose with a new rooftop solar array that will power Moab's City Hall.
The Moab Ready for 100 campaign began in earnest last December when Sierra Club members recruited local residents to attend a City Council workshop on renewable energy. “The room was packed,” says Utah Chapter chair Marc Thomas, a Moab native, who hosted a potluck in January that featured a presentation on rooftop solar and letter-writing to the city council.
“We wrote and sent somewhere between 50 and 60 letters, which according to one council member is more than they’ve ever received on any one issue,” says Thomas, who hosted another letter- and email-writing get-together the next month. Sierra Club volunteers also did phone-banking and produced a flyer that was sent out just prior to the city council vote. Local businesswoman Ashley Korenblat, owner of Western Spirit, a “cycling adventures” company, recruited local businesses to sign onto the letter of support that was delivered to the council along with the other letters from Moab residents.
“This is the something you should all be proud of,” Moab mayor Dave Sakrison, below in green sweater, said at a press conference and ribbon-cutting ceremony the following day, celebrating passage of Moab's 100% Clean Energy Resolution and the installation of a new solar array at City Hall. The addition of new panels to the existing 38-kilowatt array increased the energy-generating capacity of the City Hall array to 65 kilowatts.
“This [resolution] is the next step, and I think it’s a worthwhile step," Sakrison said. "[One hundred percent clean energy] isn’t going to happen overnight, but it’s a goal worth pursuing, not only for us, but for those who come after us.”
Lindsay Beebe notes that because of the Sierra Club’s involvement, the final resolution included clauses that address transparency, inclusivity, and equitable distribution of the economic costs and benefits of transitioning off fossil fuels and onto renewables
“With their commitment to 100 percent renewable energy, the people of Moab are providing a great example of how rural communities across the West can make a stand to protect the fragile natural resources their economies and way of life are built on,” says Beebe. “Moab has taken a huge and meaningful step toward preserving the beauty of their red rock paradise for future generations."
And that’s how Moab declared its love for clean energy -- on Valentine’s Day.
