HCCA's November Climate and Energy News Roundup is available online

Each month, HCCA's Climate and Clean Energy Program compiles a hit list of relevant climate and energy news articles from reputable sources. Please CLICK HERE to view November's edition.

2009’s Progress at Tri-State and GCEA and the Challenges that lie ahead

Everyday it becomes increasingly clear that we must make significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid catastrophic human, economic and ecologic consequences. One of the best ways to address the climate crisis while safeguarding electricity rates and bolstering the economy is to address how efficiently the electricity we consume is used and also how it’s generated.

2009 has seen auspicious progress in this regard. Pressure from conservation groups like HCCA, ratepayers like Gunnison County residents, and the current financial and regulatory climate have influenced Tri-State Transmission and Generation and many of their member cooperatives like Gunnison County Electric Association (GCEA) to begin implementing energy efficiency measures and considering renewable generation over coal for future capacity building projects. Of note, in the past year, Tri-State has:

1. Announced the 30 MW Cimarron 1 photovoltaic power plant in New Mexico (operational by 2010).
2. Announced the development of the 51 MW Kit Carson wind farm in Eastern Colorado (operational by 2010).
3. Participated in launching the Together We Save campaign for energy efficiency.
4. Created rebates for energy efficient appliances and other incentives to encourage energy efficiency.
5. Developed pilot programs which they are kicking off at different cooperatives that are examining things like local renewable generation opportunities and smart grid technologies.

At the local cooperative level, progress has also been made. This year, GCEA has:

1. Reconvened their technology committee, a group of board members who works with GCEA staff to develop and implement energy efficiency and examine the potential for local renewable generation projects.
2. Launched in the Taylor Hydro feasibility study.
3. Launched an Energy Efficiency Rebate Program.
4. Created new programs to offer home energy audits to their members.
5. Designed and held outreach events like the Women's Weatherization Workshop.

While there have certainly been some positive developments, our efforts must remain vigilant. In contrast to the 81 MW of renewable capacity announced by Tri-State in the past year, they are still actively pursuing the development of an 895 MW coal plant. Additionally, the lobbying groups supported by Tri-State and its cooperatives like the Colorado Rural Electric Association and the National Renewable Electric Association are heavy organizing and lobbying presences that seek to prevent what could be negative legislative consequences to the status quo of coal-based electrification. Additionally, we hear through credible sources that many cooperative directors simply do not believe in human caused climate change or that coal has anything to do with some of the current ecological, health and resource challenges we face. Indeed, this is a challenging culture to change.

Contrary to investor-owned utilities like Xcel energy (the largest utility in the state), cooperative utilities like Tri-State (Colorado’s second-largest utility) are not regulated by the Public Utilities Commission

and therefore face less stringent renewable energy standards.

Change at our cooperative utilities lies in the ability of their membership to demand it. HCCA continues to work actively to organize a voice for this demand and produce tangible results.

HCCA’s Climate and Clean Energy Program now publishes a monthly Climate and Energy News Roundup. If you’re interested in receiving this monthly compilation of the most relevant climate and energy news, please email chris@hccaonline.org to sign up.

Tell Governor Ritter to Protect Colorado's Roadless Areas

Your input is needed by October 2nd!!!

Over 4 Million Acres of Colorado's Roadless Area forests are at risk and your help is needed right now to keep these forests intact. Roadless Areas within National Forests are protected by law . . . specifically the 2001 National Roadless Rule. The Bush Administration tried its best to dismantle this law but a federal court recently reinstated the 2001 National Roadless Rule. Despite this court ruling, the state of Colorado is continuing efforts to open up these Roadless Areas to widespread logging, new coal mines, and road building through a state Roadless Rule

The proposed state Roadless Rule falls short of the protections our National Forest Roadless Areas deserve, and overall, it would result in less protection for forests here than in any other state in this country.

As currently drafted, the proposed state Roadless Rule would:

• Open important wildlife areas to roads for new coal mines and for unspecified electrical lines.
• Allow fragmentation of important natural areas with roads for new dams, reservoirs, and ditches.
• Divert scarce fuels-reduction resources from areas near communities that are at-risk of wildfire, for logging in the backcountry.

The Colorado Department of Natural Resources is seeking comments on this flawed state Roadless Rule and the deadline for those comments is October 2nd.

Please email or send a letter with the above points opposing the state Roadless Rule as it is currently drafted. Let them know that the 2001 National Roadless Rule provides Colorado and the rest of the country a roadless policy that is consistent with national conservation priorities and that truly protects our national forests and communities.

Send comments to:

Roadless.Comments@state.co.us

or

Roadless Rule Comments
Colorado Department Of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 718
Denver, CO 80203

These lands belong to all Americans and a National Roadless Rule will preserve them for future generations. Thanks for making a difference.

Roadless Road Show Coming to Town

Friends of Colorado’s Backcountry Forests will launch a state tour and ‘Roadless Road Show’ giving citizens the opportunity to post messages in support of National Roadless protection. The Roadless Road Show will gather these messages for the state’s comment period on the proposed rule for Colorado’s Roadless Areas on National Forests.

The Road Show will be a traveling wall, providing an opportunity for people to add their comments to the display, building momentum as it travels the state. The Road Show will begin in Durango the weekend of Sept. 12th, then start its traverse across the state, arriving in Denver at the end of the comment period in late September.

The Roadless Road Show will be at the following locations in Gunnison County during its tour:

-Tuesday, September 15th (11-1 PM): In Front of Western State College Student Center in Gunnison

-Wednesday, September 16th (9-11 AM): At Elk Ave & 3rd in Crested Butte

Come out and show your support for Roadless Area protection and sign the wall!

Green Jobs for a Green Future - Real Jobs for Real People (Video)

From The White House Blog

"We have heard from Van Jones, Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, on some of the seedlings of a clean energy economy before. And back in May he introduced us to the enormous potential of weatherizing buildings and homes. Today, as part of a week where the Cabinet is out in force pushing through key energy-related projects and initiatives, Van comes back again to show us how weatherizing homes will be a major source of jobs in neighborhoods like yours as the President’s vision for a clean energy economy becomes reality. See if you can watch the video and not be excited about what the future holds here."

Beyond Coal - Showdown at Highwood - VIDEO

In Great Falls, Mont., a diverse coalition of ranchers, farmers, local residents, doctors, lawyers and conservationists has been fighting to protect their clean water, productive soil and pure Western air from the Highwood Generating Station, a dirty coal-fired power plant that developers want to build on the banks of the Missouri River. Beyond Coal: Showdown at Highwood, documents how these many voices have been able to find strength in their opposition to the common goal of keeping their homes, health, and heritage from being tainted by the dirtiest source of energy available.

Press Release on proposed State Roadless Rule

Today, the Colorado Department of Natural Resources is releasing proposed revisions to the draft Colorado Roadless Rule for public review and comment.

Our groups will closely examine the proposed state rule, but from what we already know it is a bad deal for Colorado. It would result in less protection for roadless national forests here than in any other state. As citizens here and across the nation have called for time and again, these national lands deserve the strong protections found in the 2001 Roadless Rule.

The proposed Colorado rule falls far short.

The proposed Colorado rule would allow coal mining in a fragile watershed where no mine exists and no land has been leased for coal mining. It allows roadbuilding and logging more than a mile into the backcountry, diverting scarce resources away from communities potentially at-risk from wildfire. The proposed rule offers an open-ended invitation for roads to new damsites including private reservoirs. It gives the Forest Service so much leeway that the purpose of the 2001 Rule - to provide clear direction to protect these areas from further ecological damage - is lost.

In the coming days, we will review the proposal more closely and encourage citizens and community leaders to provide input to the Governor as well as the Secretary of Agriculture who oversees Colorado's national forests.

Our bottom line is that we support strong measures for the protection of roadless areas provided by the 2001 Roadless Rule. We believe Colorado's roadless national forests deserve the same standards of protection as those in every other state. The proposed Colorado rule simply doesn’t measure up.

Contacts:

Ryan Demmy Bidwell, Colorado Wild 970-385-9833
Peter Hart, Wilderness Workshop 970-963-3977
Carrie Curtiss, Colorado Environmental Coalition 303-405-6709
Andrea Robinsong, Western Colorado Congress 970-623-2113
Bryan Martin, Colorado Mountain Club 303- 519-2027
Amy Mall, Natural Resources Defense Council 720-565-0188
Lawton Grinter, High Country Citizens' Alliance 970-349-7104