Mission:
The
wasteful and high consumption style of living in the U.S. is most exemplified by the production and use of energy. At the same time,
nowhere is major change more possible and practical than in our production
and use of energy. We call for a fundamental and focused effort to decentralize
energy production and switch to renewable forms of energy to promote self-reliance, local control, efficiency and protection of the environment.
Short
Term
1.
Inform citizens of energy impacts and alternatives available now
in order to help them lower their impacts.
2. Encourage alternative transportation modes such
as carpooling, bicycles, and mass transit to reduce the use of single
occupancy fossil fuel powered vehicles.
3. Encourage Public Service Co. to carry through
with plans to install photovoltaic power supply at Fort St. Vrain.
4. Convert coal plants to natural gas until renewables
can supply more electricity.
5. Require governments to examine renewable energy
for any public development and use it if it is cost effective over
the long term.
6. Decisions about how to produce our energy should
be based on total projected lifetime costs rather than initial capital
costs as is now the standard practice.
7. Government energy research funding for nuclear
power development should be stopped and these funds redirected to
renewable energy research and development.
8. Change utility pricing methods to encourage
efficiency and conservation rather than consumption.
9. Utilities should provide assistance for efficiency
retrofitting of old equipment and buildings and use energy savings to pay for the cost
so that new power plants do not need to be built.
10. Encourage more active implementation of co-generation
to recapture otherwise lost energy.
Medium
Term
1.
Speed up renewable energy use by having energy costs reflect environmental
and social costs; factoring in externalities to determine energy
costs.
2. Bring investor utilities, such as Public Service
Co., under municipal control to reduce costs.
3. Make sure that building codes require maximum
energy efficiency in construction.
4. Colorado should pass a no emission vehicle law
(as in California) to encourage new technology development.
5. Colorado should develop a program to lower greenhouse
gas emissions by 25% in ten years and up to 70% over the next 40
years.
Long
Term
1.
Energy production should be decentralized so that communities have
more control.
2. Energy production and use should match the bioregion;
for example, wind power where it is windy and solar where it is
sunny.
3. Change land use planning to create communities
that require less transportation. That is, communities where people live near the
places where they work and shop.
4. No new fossil fuel or nuclear plants - switch
to renewables.
