Its official: Boulder creates energy utility – Boulder Daily Camera.
Boulder officially created a power and light utility Tuesday night.
For weeks, Boulder officials have downplayed the significance of the vote, as the utility will be a paper entity only for months and possibly for years to come.
They stressed that the creation of the utility does not mean that Boulder has decided to acquire Xcel Energy’s distribution system or actually run a utility and that the city can and might change course.
But Boulder City Council members were jubilant over the decision, with Councilman Macon Cowles saying at the end of the meeting that he wished he’d brought champagne.
Just like Obamacare has the highest rates in the resort communities, Boulder will have the highest electric rates in the 24 square miles surrounded by reality. Oh, but paying more for power will feel so good. We shall see how paying the highest power rates in the states feel once the elation wears off. Just ask the population in the resort areas how they like having the highest insurance rates in the country.
Admittedly getting a little ahead of myself but the dominoes are falling and no simple “off ramp” is going to stop it now.
Added 5/8/2014… but maybe this video will help! h/t to frequent (and pretty much only) commenter Mark Miller.
Personally I think we should be passing this around as much as possible. Germany has been trying to get off fossil fuels, and has refused nuclear power due to Fukushima. Now they’re burning more coal than they did 25 years ago. A panel of experts appointed by Merkel’s own gov’t (called the “grand coalition” or “Groko”), said that their “power transition” plan will not deliver the promised benefits, but her gov’t is going ahead with it anyway. This skit calls it what it is: a religion. Finally, somebody gets it!
http://youtu.be/-e2U2cYcPro
It makes me wonder why the panel Merkel appointed said the “energy transition” wouldn’t work, given the Boulder experience. Typically gov’t appointed experts toe the party line, as we saw with the City.
In any case, I wasn’t so taken with the experts telling Merkel the Groko plan was a mistake. What I loved was how the show correctly (in my view) identified the motivation behind the plan as religious in nature, rather than being based in science, engineering, or economics, in terms of meeting realistic goals.