Local organizers have ended their campaign to place a measure on this November’s ballot that would have allowed Boulder to exit its 2020 franchise agreement with Xcel Energy and seek an alternative energy provider.
Organizers with the Committee for Boulder Power said they lacked enough time to gather the 3,401 signatures required by the May 28 deadline.
Leslie Glustrom, a longtime climate activist and the campaign’s manager, said the campaign still helped raise awareness about the city’s energy future. She pointed to growing interest in alternative suppliers like Guzman Energy, which has attracted a number of utilities across Colorado by offering lower and more stable rates. Many residents, she said, were surprised to learn that wind and solar power with storage can be delivered for a fraction of what Xcel currently charges. She also said Boulder City Council should consider referring the measure to the ballot this year.
“We just want the community to be able to have that conversation,” she said.
The proposed measure would have terminated the franchise agreement approved by voters in 2020, which ended Boulder’s decade-long push to form its own utility and cut ties with Xcel. That agreement included commitments by Xcel to hit specific carbon-reduction benchmarks. It also included defined off-ramps that allow the city to exit the agreement early — including in 2025 and 2028 if Xcel fails to meet its climate obligations.
So far, Xcel has missed the emissions benchmarks for both 2022 and 2024. While the company has pledged to stop using coal by 2030, it plans to burn natural gas well beyond that date, complicating Boulder’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2035.
Glustrom said the campaign sought to highlight issues with Xcel’s monopoly pricing and aging infrastructure, which she said is increasingly vulnerable in a warming climate with more extreme weather, like wildfires.
Boulder County residents are still grappling with the legacy of the 2021 Marshall Fire, which destroyed more than 1,000 homes and resulted from the merging of two fires. One was allegedly caused by sparks from an unmoored Xcel power line. Last spring, Xcel preemptively shut off power during a windstorm to prevent damaged power lines from potentially causing a wildfire. The short notice left critical facilities, businesses and vulnerable residents scrambling and without electricity for several days.
The Committee for Boulder Power is the third group this year to abandon efforts to place a measure on the ballot. Campaigns to close West Pearl Street to cars and another to impose fees and affordability requirements on certain housing projects were also called off. As a result, no resident-led measures will appear on Boulder’s 2025 ballot.
Didn’t make sense in 2020 and still doesn’t.
Xcel pays 3-4 and charges us 14cents/kwh. You decide.
I’ve been a Boulder resident since 1963 and a customer of the Public Service Co (now called Xcel Energy) all this time. I appreciate their expertise and ability to call on their employees from other nearby states should Boulder or the state need extra help dealing with a problem. They do offer customers the option of getting part of their energy from wind which is helpful.
Longmont’s incredible NextLight municipal fiber service exists because the City also owns their power utilities and associated right of ways. As long as we continue to rent such services from private companies like Xcel we will never be able to provide such services as such quality and low prices for the benefit of the community. For a city to control its utilities is to control its own destiny.