Pueblo powered by 100 percent renewable energy by 2035?

Pueblo City Council just approved a resolution that sets the goal.

Flickr / Gary Goldberg

Pueblo’s Eastside councilman, Larry Atencio, wants Pueblo to rely completely on renewable energy sources by 2035. He’s the sponsor of a resolution council passed Monday night at its regular meeting.

The resolution doesn’t carry any liability. There are no ramifications if the goal isn’t met in that time frame.

Six of the seven council members voted for the resolution. Bob Schilling was the only one to vote against the measure.

“Pueblo is on the forefront of renewable energy industry,” Atencio said during the council meeting, referencing wind turbine producer Vestas and the Renewable Energy Systems solar farm near the Xcel power plant.

The city’s current franchise agreement already has plans to increase renewable energy production by 2035, which leads Atencio to believe in his resolution that 100 percent would be realistic, especially with the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District’s planned construction of a hydroelectric generation facility this year.

The Sierra Club Sangre de Cristo Group, with collaboration and endorsement of the group Pueblo’s Energy Future, recommended the resolution, according to resolution documents. Pueblo’s Energy Future is a grassroots group that has been vocal about the raising electric rates of Black Hills Electric, the utilities provider for the city of Pueblo.

Five supporters signed up to speak on the resolution, which requires no financial backing from the city. One person spoke against the resolution, citing cost concerns.

David Cockrell, of Pueblo’s Energy Future, reiterated that the resolution is more of a vision than a roadmap.

In 2010, the city’s sustainability initiative includes an outline of some renewable energy projects that could be implemented, but never set any specific goals. By contrast, Pueblo County’s 2012 plan made it a goal to promote energy efficiency be at five percent in commercial and residential properties by 2020. The plan noted that the objective supported the Colorado Public Utilities requirement that Black Hills meet five percent renewable energy efficiency by 2020.

The background paper for the renewable energy resolution said “Black Hills Energy projects the cost savings of increasing renewable energy generation to 65 percent at $47 million by 2040,” according to the company’s 2016 Electric Resource Plan.

Aspen, with a population of just under 7,000 permanent residents, is the only Colorado town with 100 percent of energy generated by renewable resources. Being a ski town, Aspen government officials said they would see the effects of climate change much sooner than other places, and in 2007 put together the Canary Action Plan.

By 2014, Aspen was using nearly 80 percent renewable energy, according to a report by the Sierra Club.

“Part of the end result was a 2015 contract with Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska to buy wind power from Nebraska and South Dakota. That allowed wind to take the place of the remaining coal on the grid and hit the 100 percent mark,” the report said.

Aspen’s mix is now approximately 50 percent wind, 45 percent hydropower, and the remaining 5 percent from solar.

Other cities that want to go totally renewable include San Francisco, San Jose, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Rochester, Minnesota.

The Sierra Club’s definition of renewable didn’t include natural gas, nuclear, or any carbon-based energy source.