From email from Pete Kolbenschlag:
In a world of often competing needs, sometimes it’s harder to find a common path forward than to simply plow one’s own. And when a project to be hurried along is for some greater good, then to steam through the process may seem warranted. This sometimes seems the case for calls to streamline clean energy development or to limit community input into new infrastructure. But shortcuts can make for long delays – and many an ambitious project runs into obstacles by not adequately involving impacted members of the public, who nonetheless will be heard.
So the Sentinel is correct to call for clarity on utility-sized solar as it has in a recent editorial. Which was also on the mark noting that more solar is welcomed. The opportunity is here now to secure investments in a cleaner energy future. But that does mean that we have to get it right.
Still, we shouldn’t delay. The need is real. How we power our lives and communities is quickly shifting and western Colorado should lead the way. It isn’t either/or. Siting of energy facilities and how they are integrated with the environment, farms, businesses and neighborhoods should always be a top concern. We must not repeat mistakes from our fossil fuel past when ecosystems and some communities were treated as sacrifice zones in the name of necessity. But we absolutely must transform our energy system and how we power our lives and economy.
Last February, my organization – the Colorado Farm and Food Alliance – issued its report on climate change in the Gunnison River Basin. Then 2023 happened. Last year is being widely reported as the hottest ever recorded as concentrations of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere – notably CO2 – hit levels likely not seen for millions of years. Meanwhile extreme weather and other climate disruptions continued to reset expectations about scope, onset and frequency.
Sure, there are still hold-outs who believe climate science is fiction and others who want hard to believe that some yet-unproven technology will allow the burning of methane-gas, oil and coal long into the future. But the economic, political and fact-based reality is that to a growing number of nations, decision-makers and institutions a rapid shift to clean energy is both necessary and inevitable. The data are clear: we must act with urgency and at scale if we are to address climate change.
That doesn’t skip over the need to meet community needs and issues. Federal legislation has made new funding available to help speed the deployment of more renewables. And the Colorado legislature is considering legislation, and could do more, to help direct where and how this renewable build out occurs. Still, local governments, like county commissioners, should not wait.
Taking effort to incentivize renewable projects that integrate with and benefit the communities where they are located is key. Not only for fairness but also to smooth development at the pace and scope required. The co-location of facilities, solar with agriculture for instance, or on rooftops and over parking lots, can help to mitigate some of the burden new development can place on others. Opportunities like workforce development programs, consumer cost savings, community-ownership are other outcomes that can and should be encouraged to make clean energy a win for the community as a whole, as well as for the climate.
One example is the agrivoltaics project the Colorado Farm and Food Alliance has been helping to steer in Delta County, that seeks to develop a community-rooted model for solar that pairs with and even benefits agriculture, putting more clean power on the grid while returning the cost-savings from production to its farm-based member-subscribers.
That is one place strong local leadership can help, in Mesa County and elsewhere, to guide where and how such projects are located. And state legislation can create stronger incentives to put more meaningful and community-centered benefits in renewable project design and power generation. For instance, by encouraging utilities, both investor-owned and rural cooperatives, to accept more community-solar on their systems, or making it easier to put solar production cost-savings directly on a consumer’s utility bill, as examples.
But we need to act now. With federal funding from recent laws, a growing recognition of the challenge at hand, and a willingness to lead we can develop a new energy economy that supports western Colorado communities and livelihoods. We need a thoughtful but strong and steady approach that meets and matches community needs and promptly puts more renewable energy to work powering Colorado.