As an 18-plus year scientist in renewable energy research, and 40-plus year resident of Boulder, I am voting “No” on ballot question 2L in order to end the muni now. In October 2011, in an opinion piece, I wrote, “In my many years of renewable energy research, I have seen that “doing it wrong” does not advance the change to renewables. Instead, it does the exact opposite, which makes promoting clean energy even more difficult.” Today, the muni has been “doing it wrong” for six years now.

I worked as a scientist for over 18 years at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in support of the U.S. Department of Energy Wind Program. I worked on wind projects throughout the United States and in over 25 foreign countries. I would like to see renewables succeed, but with seven legal and regulatory losses, including three at the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC), two at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and two at the Boulder District Court, the muni is an absolute failure.

The PUC’s Sept, 14 decision handed Boulder another big defeat by granting, in part and with conditions, only a small portion of Boulder’s third separation plan, while denying the vast majority of the plan. The transfer of all six substations and the joint use of over 30 miles of Xcel and Century Link poles was not allowed. This alone will put the muni’s cost over the $214 million limit long before the remaining assets’ costs are even considered.

The PUC stated that Boulder will be responsible for both its separation costs and those of Xcel, including design and construction costs. Xcel will not be forced to contract with a third-party engineering firm for this work. Boulder, should it abandon the muni, will still be responsible for Xcel’s incurred costs. Boulder’s “pay-later plan” where Xcel would first finance the construction and reconfiguration work and then be reimbursed by Boulder was rejected, further increasing the up-front costs.

For the millennials and college students, Xcel is not evil, as the older muni-activists have manipulated you to believe. When Bill Clinton was president, which was three presidents ago, our team at NREL did a wind resource assessment in the Buffalo Ridge area of Minnesota that caught Xcel’s attention. NREL and Xcel collaborated on wind energy research including transmission and grid integration, wind resource forecasting, wind farm performance, and more. This research benefited NREL, Xcel, and renewables in the United States.

For many years, Xcel headed the Utility Wind Integration Group, which included investor-owned and non-investor-owned utilities like munis and coops. The America Wind Energy Association has recognized Xcel as the national leader in wind energy for over 12 years. As the United States’ leading utility in wind energy, Xcel has plans for over 10,000 megawatts (MW) of wind energy. Putting this in perspective, over 38 Boulders or over six Denvers will be powered by Xcel’s wind. Xcel is already working with Denver and other Colorado cities to meet their 100 percent renewables goals.

Again for the millennials and college students, many of you were not here in 2011, but if not for the muni, today Boulder would already have 80 percent renewables. In August 2011, Xcel offered to build Boulder a 200 MW wind farm that would have provided Boulder with 80 percent of its electricity from renewables but City Council rejected this offer. Instead, today we are zero renewables and over $20 million wasted, including lost undergrounding from Xcel. When the 600 MW Rush Creek wind farm is completed next year, Xcel could provide Boulder with 100 percent of its electricity from renewables.

If we continue to pursue the muni and if Boulder is lucky, under the best-case scenario, it will be operating in six years. Global warming is happening too fast to wait this long. As a scientist who dedicated many years of my life to the research and development of renewables in the United States and around the world, if you are concerned as much as I am about the dangers of global warming, care as deeply as I do about the success of renewables, and you would prefer to see Boulder achieve its renewable energy goals sooner than later, I am asking you to join me in voting “No” on ballot question 2L and end the muni now.

Steve Haymes lives in Boulder.