Energy Ballot Initiative Started

Energy Ballot Initiative Started ; Lawmaker Wants to Take Renewable Power Plan to Voters

Jun 04 - Rocky Mountain News

After two defeats in the state legislature this year, House Speaker Lola Spradley aims to put her renewable energy initiative on the ballot - hoping voters will approve what lawmakers failed to pass.

The initiative calls for 10 percent of Colorado's electricity - about 1,200 megawatts - to be generated from renewable sources such as wind, solar, geothermal and bio-mass by 2015.

Spradley, R-Beulah, says the measure would create hundreds of jobs in Colorado and spur economic development in rural areas. The campaign, launched in downtown Denver on Wednesday, must gather 68,000 signatures by Aug. 2 to put the measure on the November ballot.

"People want to have a choice about where their electricity comes from," Spradley said Wednesday, kicking off the petition drive before a crowd of about 30 people on the 16th Street Mall. "They understand that renewable energy reduces our dependence on expensive natural gas and foreign oil, stabilizes costs, reduces pollution and creates jobs."

For instance, the Lamar wind farm, which generates 162 megawatts, employed more than 400 workers during its construction phase. And Xcel Energy, which buys the power from the wind farm to serve its Front Range customers, estimates the project will save $7 million over the next 20 years, she said.

U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, a Democrat from Boulder, backs Spradley's effort, leading some observers to say that renewable energy is a nonpartisan issue.

Currently, less than 2 percent of Colorado's electricity is produced from renewable sources.

The ballot measure, if approved, would require top electric utilities such as Xcel Energy, Aquila, Delta- Montrose, InterMountain and Colorado Springs to ramp up their renewable energy projects.

Steve Roalstad, spokesman for Xcel Energy, the state's largest utility, said the utility has yet to decide whether it will support the ballot initiative.

Spradley said a recent statewide poll conducted by Environment Colorado, an environmental activist group, found that 75 percent of the 600 registered voters who were polled support a 10 percent renewable energy standard by 2015.

Even after hearing strong arguments against such a standard, those surveyed still supported it by a margin of 64 percent, she added.

Spradley had earlier sponsored House Bill 1273 that required Xcel Energy and Aquila to provide 500 megawatts of power from renewable sources by 2006, 900 megawatts by 2010 and 1,800 megawatts by 2020.

The bill, although supported by Xcel, was later defeated in the Senate. An effort to include the same measure in a different bill was, again, defeated.

"It is disappointing," said Dave Bowden, president of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society, which is participating in the campaign. "Renewable energy is a hedge against fluctuating fossil fuel prices. Solar panels, for example, depend on a predictable source of energy supply and they save a huge amount of money for consumers."

Josh McCarty, 23, a recent history graduate from Purdue University in Indiana, has joined the campaign.

"I'd like to make a difference," McCarty said. "It will be great to change the way Colorado gets its energy."

For far more extensive news on the energy/power visit: http://www.energycentral.com .