Get On With It Already!

For over a year now our City leadership and staff have been debating and deliberating over whether or not to adopt a resolution to set a goal of sourcing 100% of our electricity from renewable resources by 2030. The debates over resolutions, and goals, and long term plans drive me crazy! Ask anyone, “Do you think we should minimize pollution from energy sources?” Almost everyone will say “YES!” Ask, “when should we do it?”. The answer is “As Soon As Possible!”

How does it take a year to say that setting a goal, which everyone wants to strive towards, is a good idea? Adopting a resolution is like making a proclamation. It has no legal standing. It simply says, “We think this is a good idea.” This is the most luke warm thing that could possibly be done and our City has dedicated valuable staff time and resources for over a year debating this. Longmont took about a month in January to get it done. 80 other cities and two states have done it. The upside of taking so long to deliberate on this is that the community has been engaged. The outcomes of that outreach are completely predictable (the enviros support bold action, the Chamber of Commerce is afraid of change), but at least awareness has been raised.

In the mean time, the climate keeps changing and tangible solutions are out there waiting to be deployed. To be fair, the City is pursuing wind and solar options, but they are soooo slow and the actions they are taking are yesterday's news. Innovative they are not. We need to be taking bold steps to promote solar on rooftops and parking lots. We need to aggressively pursue electric vehicles. Maybe most importantly, we need to discover and develop our local energy storage solutions. 

CforSE is pushing for real, tangible, concrete actions. A resolution is nice but we have more important things to do. Dear City Council, Get on with it!