In late 2011, citizens of Boulder, CO, voted to boot their incumbent electric utility, Xcel Energy, and form a municipal electric utility. It was the culmination of a multi-year battle to get more clean, local energy from their corporate electric overlord. In the end, city leaders and citizens agreed that the only credible option for significantly reducing their contribution to climate change was to go it alone. Now, the city is embarked on the long, complicated process of localizing their electricity system.
Susan Osborne was the mayor of Boulder at the time of the climatic vote, and she came to Minneapolis (with a similar campaign for local energy) in September 2012 to share their story. This 4-minute video gives the synopsis:
You can learn more about Boulder’s efforts for clean, local energy here.
