Buzz about handing over our Utilities to a politically appointed board, shuttering Martin Drake Power Plant and selling Utilities outright got pretty loud around the 2013 City Council election. But everyday Colorado Springs citizens silenced the buzz with their ballots. Voters brought on six new councilmembers who, along with the three existing at-large councilmembers, double as our Utilities Board. This Board is accountable to the people of Colorado Springs; the electorate, through their votes, has the authority to hire and fire our Utilities Board. Most of the Board supports the current form of our citizen-owned Utility and the plan of keeping Drake open until it is no longer economically appropriate to do so. The buzz about closing Drake, changing the membership of the Utilities Board and selling Utilities has begun again, however, so here’s an overview of those issues: Drake is the most cost-effective option for providing citizens with electric power. Closing and replacing Drake prematurely would cost billions and that cost would be passed on to our citizens via much, much higher rates. It would also leave our City with a deficit in power that would have to be made up in some fashion. “Cleaner” methods of providing power have not reached the necessary thresholds to make those methods a complete, feasible replacement, so if Drake closure began within the next several years, we would have to build a new electric plant to make up the deficit. The future of Drake, including its eventual closure, which I believe should be decades away, will be contemplated within the context of the overall energy portfolio, the “Electric Integrated Resource Plan (EIRP).” Changing the composition of the Utilities Board to one that is mayor-appointed would be a huge mistake. Our current mayor urged the previous Council to consider the effect that closing Drake would have on downtown development and not just consider the effect it would have on our utilities rates. While every mayor may not look at the matter in quite that manner, citizens need to be aware that there are politics at play, and the more the citizens can control those politics with their votes, the more they can control their utilities rates. Also important when preparing to vote for new councilmembers is to consider what their backgrounds can bring to the Utilities Board. This kind of careful examination of backgrounds (education, expertise and opinions regarding our Utilities) can result in a Board that will do a good job on behalf of the people. That’s democracy at work. Colorado Springs is in a unique position with our Utilities. We aren’t dependent on large corporations to divvy up power to multiple communities. In fact, we sometimes sell excess power to other communities ourselves. Again, if we don’t like what our Board puts in place in regard to rates and improvements, we can fire that Board ourselves and look for people who are better aligned with us. And while our water rates are higher than some Colorado communities due to the distance we have to bring our water in from, we have better rates in other Utilities areas, and we perform better overall in rates and reliability according to industry-established standards. While our Utilities Board certainly has room for improvement (and I will continue to push for cuts in areas that will not adversely affect ratepayers and improvements that will benefit our community), our Board has made substantial inroads. We reversed an enormous solar subsidy that had been passed by the previous Council at their last meeting. We halted a $500,000 politically orchestrated study that would’ve examined selling our Utility. We’ve demanded that Utilities staff work harder to provide more transparency and we will continue to do so. The reality is that Colorado Springs Utilities is a multibillion dollar organization. When considering how and by whom we want it controlled, it is imperative that we keep it out the hands of those who don’t care so much about providing low rates and high reliability, but care merely about those billions of dollars and what it can do for them. Already we have politicians asking for lower water rates for our parks. The reality is our parks are customers, too, and if we provide those customers with lower rates, then those rates will have to be made up by other customers. Namely, you and I. Lowering park rates and consequently increasing customer rates is a backdoor tax. If we’re going to ask citizens for money for parks or anything else, we need to be upfront and honest about it. Utilities already gives the City $30 million a year in planned surplus. This is allowed by law, but it shouldn’t be abused. In conclusion, our Utilities can be run better. The current Board is working aggressively toward that end and I am confident that the next Board—hired by our citizens—will too.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 11:35:14 +0000
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