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I <br /> I <br /> III <br /> I i <br /> i <br /> . I <br /> I <br /> i I <br /> I <br /> I <br /> I I 4 <br /> I u <br /> I 7hS CRY of Boulder,ONO.,6s attempting to mrunnrrnfiCfiPa 06RG 6ts 80ectPU�s8masoOG uo�I�®IP G5 Of msBn �®rrs rrSrxn Sna <br /> My Photo courtesy of <br /> BouUer Ex bres <br /> � !i the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau. <br /> �I <br /> I <br /> The ��t to Municipla u'1�1tion <br /> BY 01rent SaurCserr <br /> Last November, Boulder, Colo,, took a critical first step on the path to creating a municipally owned <br /> electric utility, but not for the usual reasons. The underlying concern was not the reliability of electric- <br /> ity service, nor rates, nor even affordability. Rather, it was environmental commitment; morespecifi- <br /> cally, the community's pledge to reduce greenhouse gas <br /> emissions in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol that the <br /> city signed in 2002. o Over the last decade, Boulder has <br /> made great strides in energy consumption in the residential <br /> sector and installing solar photovoltaics, But as city lead- <br /> ers came to realize while discussing whether to renew a 2B <br /> 20-year franchise with Xcel Energy, the carbon emissions i <br /> associated with electricity consumption in Boulder were � <br /> 1 largely beyond their control, Moreover, carbon emissions <br /> AWYES.nrfi <br /> i <br /> would, at best, decrease very slowly in future years because of their supplier's long-term commitr ` <br /> to coal, In fact, Xcel's, fuel mix is more than 60 percent coal and the utility brought a new 700-i /iVV <br /> coal-fired unit on line less than two years ago, <br /> 94 Public Power June 2099 PublicPowerMedia.org <br /> i <br />