Jacy Marmaduke

jmarmaduke@coloradoan.com

Fort Collins isn't the only environmentally conscious city on the Front Range.

Pueblo's city council on Monday committed the city to 100 percent renewable energy by 2035. Pueblo is now the third city in Colorado and the 22nd in the nation to make the promise.

The city doesn't yet have a route for its destination, partially because it doesn't have ownership of its electricity provider like Fort Collins does. City Council President Steve Nawrocki has asked staff to explore options for creating a city-owned utility, which could mean purchasing its current power provider, the Pueblo Chieftain reported.

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The council's resolution "was mostly a statement of our support for the vision of renewable energy,” Nawrocki told the Chieftain. “But the fact is, the city won’t have any authority over its sources of power unless it creates its own utility.”

Rising electricity costs in the city were part of the inspiration for the resolution, which was sponsored by the Sierra Club.

“Many of my friends and family are among the more than 7,000 households and businesses in Pueblo that have had their electricity shut off in recent years due to the rising cost of electricity,” said Frank Cordova, a Pueblo Sierra Club volunteer, in a Sierra Club press release. “People have lost their homes or have gone without food or medicine because of the fees required to get it turned back on. We have the solutions to this problem as the cost of cleaner and renewable energy sources — such as solar and wind — keeps declining."

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