From the Aspen Daily News (Curtis Wackerle):
The “Backyard Energy Campaign” is set to kick off Monday with a press conference at the Marolt Barn at 2 p.m. The group is pushing for a “yes” vote on the recently approved ballot question asking voters if they want the city to continue pursuing the project, which would use water from Castle and Maroon creeks to generate hydropower.
Longtime Aspenite Jim Markalunas, who ran the city’s historic Castle Creek hydropower plant before it shutdown in the late 1950s, is chair of the committee. Ruthie Brown, a member of Pitkin County’s Healthy Rivers and Streams Board whose family pioneered hydropower in the region, is a co-chair, along with climate change expert Randy Udall. Aspen Skiing Co. environmental sustainability vice president Auden Schendler also has signed on in support, according to a press release the group issued Thursday.
“The committee message is clear: Aspen has the opportunity to stop burning 6 million pounds of dirty coal and instead can produce clean, renewable energy in our own backyard while ensuring healthy stream flows,” the group’s statement says, referring to the amount of coal-fired power currently purchased by Aspen the city claims the hydro project would supplant.