Carbondale-based Clean Energy Economy for the Region, or CLEER, hosted a forum at the Aspen Meadows Resort focusing on green energy for rural communities. “Energizing Climate Solutions: Rural, Resort & Energy Transition Communities” brought climate policy experts together from around Colorado and the U.S., with the hopes of informing local policies on climate action.
Former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, who also serves as the director and founder of the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University, kicked off the day with a keynote address.
He called Colorado “a beacon on a hill” in terms of the example it sets for other states on climate action and policy. He reminisced on 2004, when Colorado voters approved legislation requiring large utilities to generate or purchase at least 10% of their electricity by 2015. Ritter said it’s hard to believe that was the standard when you look at where the state is now.
“If you said to (me), ‘oh, by the way, Xcel Energy is going to reduce their emissions by 85% by 2030,’ they would not have believed it,” he said. “If you said to them, ‘Tri-State is going to reduce its emissions by 80-85% by 2030,’ they would have found that totally incredible… And yet, we are on that trajectory because of a lot of people in this room who have been involved in this and have been involved in this fight for much more than just the (last) two decades.”
But, Ritter said, there’s still a very long way to go when it comes to energy and climate action, and much of the world isn’t moving fast enough, especially when you look at the urgency of climate change.
“We're probably on better track as a state than almost anywhere else in the country,” he said. “But as a nation, we need to scale up. And we need to become speedier in our activism around climate, climate change, and energy solutions.”
Climate and Economic Resilience
A morning panel, moderated by Ritter, explored opportunities and discussed challenges for rural and rural resort communities looking to transition away from coal and fossil fuels to green energy.
Panelist Auden Schendler, Aspen One’s Senior Vice President of Sustainability, said one challenge he sees here in the Roaring Fork Valley is a desire to freeze the community at a point in time, rather than accepting that their community will change.
That discussion manifests in the valley’s housing conversations, and other climate issues, Schendler said.
“The story of housing integrates almost everything you need to address on climate transportation,” he said. “(Housing is) about a third. So, site your people near their work next to mass transit, the built environment is 30% and the utilities sector, roughly 30%.”
Schendler said environmentalists cannot be afraid of infrastructure.
“For a while, infrastructure was the great thing in America, and now we fear it,” he said. “But we’re going to need to rebuild mass transit systems and rail and transmission lines and housing, and we have to be open to that.”
Panelist Kendra Hughes is the associate director of clean energy and conservation at the Center for American Progress. She said at the federal level, one of the biggest priorities is getting dollars for infrastructure out the door, particularly from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.
“The funding is moving slowly, and if we don’t get it out before, maybe there’s a different administration, then a lot of it is probably going to get lost,” she said.
But, she pointed out, it can be really difficult for people to actually take advantage of available money.
Panelist Francesca Santos is the program officer at the Rural Climate Partnership. She said it’s not just local rural governments struggling to get funds for green energy, it’s individual households in rural areas, as well.
“If you don't qualify for a rebate, you're having to put down money, which is already a huge issue, especially for rural places, especially for rural BIPOC communities who don't have most of the time, even a thousand dollars in savings, let alone money to put down on a heat pump.”
Another part of that is the workforce, Santos said, because in rural areas, they don’t always have the necessary skills to install new technology like heat pumps.
“There's no one to actually go and do the work,” she said. “There's no contractors available. There's no one to do the installation, someone to do the home energy audits.”
During the Q&A portion of the panel, Rifle city councilor Alicia Gresley pointed out obstacles for small towns that want to take advantage of funds for climate action and green energy.
“The reality is we don't have the capacity to, one, apply for these grants. And when we do, the criteria is so expensive and unattainable, does not include capacity building or staffing, you have to have a project ready to go, which is putting the cart before the horse. That is the challenge that we’re facing down on the ground level.”
Panelists also discussed how to transition away from coal and fossil fuels, while making sure that communities that rely on those industries economically aren’t left behind.
Panelist Zachary Whitlock is a senior research analyst for Resources for the Future and the Resilient Economies Initiative. He said the most important thing is listening to communities that rely on extractive activities like mining and oil and gas.
“The Washington (D.C.) perspective is that… ‘so right now you're an energy community. Like, why don't you become a clean energy community?’” he said. “I think what we hear from communities is they want rural economic development, not necessarily clean energy. And clean energy can be part of that story. And clean energy is a massive part of that story, especially for property taxes replacing that revenue.”
Hughes added that workers, especially, need to be involved in these conversations. She said workers need to be in on the ground floor as leaders make decisions about clean energy projects in their communities.
“You need to make sure that as we're transitioning, we're not just coming, building the infrastructure, giving jobs for people outside of the area and then leaving,” she said. “That we're really funding the economy, and it's a holistic picture.”
Other panels and breakout sessions throughout the day looked at ways Colorado and the U.S. can lead on climate initiatives, decarbonizing buildings, and increasing access to clean mobility.
