There have been many public meetings in recent years at which Puebloans have complained about the cost of their monthly electric bills from Black Hills Energy.

City Council President Steve Nawrocki thinks it�s time for the city to investigate � again � whether it could create a municipal electric company, even if it means buying the local Black Hills utility.

At Monday�s council meeting, Nawrocki said he�s asked city staff to research what it would take to create a city-owned power company.

�Sometime this year, I�d like them to bring council a report on what might be involved,� Nawrocki said Tuesday. �We should have all the facts.�

Nawrocki is term-limited this year, wrapping up his eighth year as an at-large council member.

�Black Hills was given the city electric franchise about the same time I joined council,� he said. �Its relationship with the city residents has gotten worse over the years as rates have increased. I think council has a responsibility to look at all options.�

Creating a municipal utility isn�t a new idea. Council considered doing that a decade ago when Aquila, then providing electricity to Pueblo, announced it was for sale.

The city chose not to buy Aquila, but Black Hills did. It then was granted a 20-year franchise agreement by city voters. There is a clause, however, where voters can reconsider the contract in 2020.

Buying out Black Hills would be a very expensive undertaking. The utility has built a $580 million power plant north of Pueblo Municipal Airport for starters. But any utility also would have an established base of electric customers for revenue.

As a comparison, Boulder has been trying to separate itself from Xcel Energy for several years and the Colorado Public Utilities Commission is overseeing the process of deciding what Xcel equipment and infrastructure Boulder would have to buy from the utility.

Also Monday night, council adopted a resolution sponsored by the Sierra Club pledging the panel�s support for having renewable energy supply 100 percent of the city�s power by the year 2025.

�That resolution was mostly a statement of our support for the vision of renewable energy,� Nawrocki said. �But the fact is, the city won�t have any authority over its sources of power unless it creates its own utility.�

proper@chieftain.com