A proclamation of support for studying Community Choice Energy (CCE) as an option for local governments in the State of Colorado.
And so seeing no other council announcements, we have no presentations tonight, we have no communications. We have two proclamations being read this evening. Councilmember Hines, would you please read Proclamation 1453 for us? Thank you, Madam President. I will. So the proclamation is titled Proclamation in support for studying Community Choice Energy as an option for local governments in the state of Colorado. Whereas, 14 cities and counties in Colorado, known as the ready for 100 communities, have committed to obtaining 100% renewable energy by 2025 to 2035 and 34 communities known as Colorado Communities for Climate Action have organized to advocate for stronger climate policy. And. WHEREAS, these communities, which represent when more than 1 million Coloradans cannot reach their ambitious energy and climate goals within their desired time frames unless they require greater choice and control over the energy sources comprising their wholesale electricity supply. And. WHEREAS, the Governor's Policy Initiative, entitled Road Back to 100% Renewable Energy by 2040 and Bold Climate Action, explicitly supports local commitments to 100% renewable energy. And. WHEREAS, the ability of the community to achieve ambitious energy goals is currently limited by the energy supply mix and the decarbonization decarbonization timeline of the electric utility that serves that community . And having the option to procure electricity from alternative wholesale suppliers may enable communities to achieve their climate or excuse me, achieve their energy goals substantially faster and at lower cost. And. Whereas, there exists a local energy model called Community Choice Energy, also known as Community Choice Aggregation, which is a proven approach to expanding local control over energy sources and lowering electricity rates by introducing competition and choice into the wholesale electricity sector. And. WHEREAS, under CCU, communities may choose alternative wholesale electricity suppliers, while the electricity continues to be delivered by the incumbent utility, which continues to own and operate its transmission and distribution system and manage customer service and billing, thereby allowing communities to choose a competitive power supplier without affecting non procurement related utility operations. And. Whereas, in the wholesale opt out model of CCE, individual customers retain the choice to opt out of their community CCE offerings and receive electricity supplied by the utility under its traditional bundled service. And. WHEREAS, a thoughtful study of CCE would answer key questions and illuminate the potential benefits and challenges of enabling CCS model in Colorado. And. WHEREAS, a well-designed CCE program would likely drive lower rates and cleaner energy for all Colorado communities, not just those that would Adobe city by introducing competition and community level choice into the supply of wholesale electricity while maintaining the viability and strength of Colorado's investor owned electric utilities and without imposing additional costs on the utility for its bundled service customers. And. Whereas, while CCE has the potential to allow Colorado communities to make local energy decisions, meet their energy goals, reduce energy costs, foster local economic development, and keep more energy dollars circulating locally through more local employment and fewer energy dollars flowing to distant utility employees, executives and shareholders. It is nonetheless prudent to study the economic and technical visibility and the regulatory implications and legal impacts of CCE before considering CCE enabled legislation. And. Whereas, CC is an innovative concept which other states have already successfully implemented, thereby thereby giving Colorado the opportunity to identify best practices and lessons learned from their experiences. And. WHEREAS, a CC study bill entitled Public Utilities Commission Study of Community Choice Energy was introduced in the Colorado legislation that would authorize an informational proceeding at the PUC to receive input on key questions about CCE from a broad array of stakeholders and invited expert speakers to determine whether the apparent promise of CCE for Colorado's energy and economic future does indeed have merit. Now therefore be resolved by Denver City Council. That Denver City Council concludes that it is a public interest to better understand the potential benefits and challenges of community choice. Energy in the state of Colorado and Denver City Council does hereby indicate its support for a thoughtful study of CTE at the Public Utility Commission. And Denver City Council does urge its legislators and all Colorado legislators to support the study before that so that we may obtain the information needed to determine whether the apparent promise of 64 communities for eight communities and for Colorado's energy and economic future has merit, merit and is worthy of being considered for implementation. Adoption of this resolution in no way obligates Denver City Council or Denver to participate in community choice energy, energy if and when. The study does show no benefits to Colorado and is subsequently implemented by passage of enabling legislation in the future. This. Sorry. Go ahead, Councilman. And one one quick note. If if colleagues, if you checked Granicus, this has been updated and the public facing view does save Denver City Council and argue it just has denver. So the public sees that it is Denver city councilman as I read it, as it is published to the public. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Councilman Hines, your motion to adopt. I move that we adopt. Proclamation number 20 that 1453 seconds you. Councilman, it's been moved and I believe Councilman Ortega was the second. And we'll go next to comments by members of council. But just wanted to remind folks that because we do have interpretation services happening simultaneously and you did a great job, Councilman Hines. You were right on. But just that we speak a bit slower so that we can allow the interpreters time to do their job. And so and we've had it moved and seconded comments by members of Council Councilman Hines. Thank you, Madam President. And thank you for to our interpreters, for all you do. I apologize. So I am excited to bring this proclamation forward for three reasons. First, climate change is real. Yes, Cohen is here and it is destructive to our community, our lives and our livelihoods. But climate change is also here, and it threatens our habitability on this planet. We're seeing it all over the world from Venice, Italy, where their newly installed water barrier system still didn't stop flooding recently throughout the city. We're also seeing it here in Colorado, where three of the state's largest forest fires in history all occurred in 2020 . We cannot afford to lose focus on our climate. Certainly not for our children and for our children's children. But we also can't afford to lose focus on our climate for us today. Second, communities like Denver deserve the ability to direct the ways we want to generate energy. Call it local control. Denver Rights Want more control over our own energy sources. We have the most polluted zip code in the nation. 80216 located in District nine and it is socially and environmentally just that we move quickly to stop the continued destruction. Three. This is a demonstration of collaboration between levels of government. We are doing everything we can to mitigate climate change, including partnering up and down the levels of government to preserve our habitability on our beautiful planet. Finally, to be clear, this is a Denver City Council proclamation in support of a bill that it passed, would direct the PUC to conduct a study on Community Choice energy. While I and maybe my colleagues might be on board with Community Choice Energy entirely. The proclamation is just supporting the bill that creates the study. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilman Hines. Madam Secretary, roll call, please. Hines. Hi. Cashman. I can. I. Ortega. I. Sandoval. I. Sawyer, I. Torres. I black. I see tobacco. I. Clark. I. Flynn. I. Herndon. I. Madam President. I. Madam Secretary, close the voting and announce the results. 13 eyes. 13 eyes. Proclamation. 1453 has been adopted. Councilman Hines, we have 5 minutes for the proclamation acceptance. If you'd like to introduce. Who will accept the proclamation? But thank you, Madam President. Representative Gideon was planning to accept the proclamation. She was the bill's sponsor and. And is the one who asked the city council to initiate the proclamation. I just received a text message from her saying that she is stuck in traffic and will be unable to accept the proclamation. So we have the 5 minutes to move forward. So thank you, Madam President. Well, congratulations, Councilman Haines, on the proclamation, and we'll wish her well in traffic. We don't get to hear that much anymore, so we'll move on. Councilmember Ortega, will you please read Proclamation 1552 for us?