As western Colorado endures a hot, dry summer with historic wildfire activity, the city of Rifle wants to become more resilient to a warming climate.
On July 2, the Rifle City Council approved a nonbinding Energy and Resilience Action Plan to improve energy efficiency and incorporate more renewables.
Clean Energy Economy for the Region helped draft the plan, which also included a vulnerability assessment of how human-caused climate change is affecting Rifle residents. The assessment found that Rifle is experiencing more heat waves and dry periods.
“The extreme heat — the wildfire and the drought — it's exactly what's happening right now,” Rifle Mayor Sean Strode said. “We haven't had a good rain in probably three months. It's been above 90 degrees.”
The Lee Fire north of Rifle has forced evacuations and pre-evacuation notices just north of the city in the past few days. That fire is now the fifth largest in Colorado history, having burned more than 120,000 acres.
Rifle’s energy and resilience plan also recognizes that vulnerable populations are more susceptible to the impacts of climate change and offers recommendations. Those include using heat pumps for cooling, which are both more energy efficient than window air conditioners and can better protect residents from breathing wildfire smoke.
However, Strode said Rifle still supports local oil and gas operations, which exacerbate the effects of climate change.
“The oil and gas industry has been a backbone of this community and its families for a long time,” Strode said. “I think the plan is more looking forward — what's in the city of Rifle’s purview, what we control, what we can improve on. It's not specific to any sort of industry or identifying one specific thing. I don't know that that would be beneficial.”
Strode noted that the city has been leaning into solar power in recent years in an attempt to diversify its economy and resources.
“The world learns,” Strode said. “Up until 2008, 2010, we were predominantly an oil and gas town, focusing on extraction and those companies. Rifle has seen a lot of boom and bust cycles over the past 50-100 years, and we don't see those as strongly anymore, because we focused on the broader perspective.”
Rifle now produces enough solar energy to power up to 80% of its homes, and it’s looking to expand. With the growth of electric vehicles, Strode hopes the city can become a hub of renewable energy by, for example, installing more EV chargers for drivers along I-70.
Meanwhile, the Garfield County commissioners approved an application Monday to drill 39 new natural gas wells a few miles outside of Rifle.
The proposed well pad will sit on private land at the base of the Roan Plateau — a natural landmark with a long history of land-use conflict. The area is a hotspot of both ecological richness and mineral potential.
The approved production site is in a designated high-priority habitat area for mule deer, so TEP Rocky Mountain had to assess alternative sites, but they found that the site about five miles northwest of Rifle minimizes overall impacts to public health and wildlife and maximizes the amount of extractable gas.
All three commissioners supported the project, including Mike Samson.
“That's kind of an untapped area of Garfield County, and everybody's been telling us that what's under the Roan is unreal,” Samson said. “I’m hoping and praying that other companies will follow your lead and that we will get the oil and gas industry going once again.”
