Here are the latest responses from the Mayor, council, and City staff, followed by my response to their responses.
In response to constituents asking the City to maximize DER and Vehicle to Grid electric vehicles, Mayor Arndt wrote:
"Thank you for writing to me. I’ll copy the interim Director of utilities here who can get you a complete answer on our solar plan, our commitment to our climate future, and our DER strategy. I think you’ll find our plans to be of some of the most advanced in the country as we’ve been committed to clean energy future earlier than the most municipalities I know.
As Mayor of Fort Collins, I was selected to attend the COP 28 in Dubai last fall. One of 10 United States mayors. This is in recognition of our work date in the clean energy space, and our commitment to the future. In January I was elected to an international board for communities committed to clean energy. I only say this to point out that Fort Collins is on the forefront of these issues and we’re working hard to make sure we meet the future demands of climate change.
Thank you for caring about our community.
Kindly,
Jeni Arndt, Mayor of Fort Collins
970-413-3146"
My response:
At least she's acknowledged that citizens have concerns. She doesn't address them or commit to learning more about them, but she knows you exist. Weird grammar aside, she is correct that Fort Collins was early to the game in setting goals, and we got accolades and recognition for doing so. Unfortunately, when it comes to taking action, Fort Collins is at the back of the pack (https://coloradosun.com/2024/01/04/platte-river-power-authority-greenhouse-gas-reductions/). Jeni's message is "Don't worry. We got this." But they don't.
Jeni's flight to Dubai produced 5.6 tons of CO2. She came back with an application for a $50k grant for "youth engagement". I haven't been able to find any info on the grant or what "youth engagement" means, but I'd be surprised if this grant leads to 5.6 tons of CO2 reduction.
Despite being elected to an international board and claiming commitment, the Mayor can't address your concerns. Instead she passes your concerns to the interim utility director, who passes the buck to the energy services manager, who says the same thing as Jeni, but with more detail. There is one new addition to the renewable energy program this year. They added home batteries to the solar rebate program, which is great if you are in the market for home batteries, but doesn't have any meaningful impact on the plans to build more gas plants. Denver is taking real, meaningful action to reach their goal of 30% DER by 2030. Jeni doesn't seem to know that this is happening, but she's convinced that Fort Collins' goal of 5% makes us a leader.
Rather than throw our hands in the air and give up, CforSE is going to step up the communication. We are planning to attend as many Tuesday evening council meetings as possible to speak during public comment. Council has a much more difficult time ignoring us in public with the cameras on. 20 or so folks speaking on the same topic gets their attention!
Would you like to join us on a Tuesday evening (first and third Tuesday of the month) at City Hall? The time commitment is from 6:30 to about 8pm. You will have a maximum of 2 minutes to speak. Honesty, it's kinda fun. Nobody judges anyone's public speaking. There is a real atmosphere of camaraderie among us citizens in the audience. Let me know if you can make it, and we'll make plans.
Hopefully the leadership that you and other citizens are showing will inspire the Mayor to step up and lead Fort Collins into a bright renewable energy future.
Here’s that response from FCU:
Thank you for your inquiry regarding our Community’s renewable electricity efforts. Fort Collins’ City Council adopted the Our Climate Future (OCF) plan in 2021, which is a community guide to help create a carbon neutral, zero waste, and 100% renewable electricity future, while also improving community equity and resilience (fcgov.com/climateaction). The plan includes multiple goals, with the following two directly related to renewable electricity:
• Provide 100% renewable electricity by 2030 with grid and local sources
• Provide 5% of community electricity from local distributed renewable sources by 2030
The OCF plan also identifies foundational strategies to advance the installation of renewables locally in Fort Collins. Included in these strategies, Fort Collins Utilities launched “solar boost” incentives in early 2024, enhancing existing programs with increased incentives for new local residential solar and battery storage systems (fcgov.com/solarrebates). This will support our continued progress toward the above 5% local renewable goal, with the Community already achieving 3.2% in 2023 (up from 2.6% in 2022 and 2.2% in 2021).
Platte River Power Authority (PRPA), our local generation and transmission provider for delivered electricity, also has planned increases in new renewable generation starting in 2025 and each year to 2030. When including the renewables included in our distribution grid and the mix provided from PRPA, our community’s annual electric usage comes from approximately 50% non-carbon resources (wind, solar and hydro). Utilities has a commitment to the ongoing adoption of efficient building equipment to reduce overall electricity consumption, and supports incentive programs and policies that enable all electric buildings in our future.
I am also happy to share that Utilities has regularly collaborated with CSU / Energy Institute for many years. Included in the collaboration is the recent development of a real time community solar model that will help conceptualize solar generation in our community, and how this energy may impact Platte River Power Authority in a future energy market ( link here: https://apps.fcgov.com/community-solar-generation/). Additionally, Utilities seeks to partner with CSU on a data analysis exercise related to increasing the opportunity for level 3 electric vehicle charging in Fort Collins.
Finally, I’d like to share the attached presentation of the steps being taken to deploy a comprehensive Virtual Power Plant here in Fort Collins. PRPA and Utilities are partnering to deploy the necessarily software to support community wide DERs, which is foundational for our future energy supply.
Thanks again for writing, and we’d be happy to answer any additional questions you may have.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Brian Tholl
(he/him/his)
Energy Services Sr. Manager
Fort Collins Utilities – Energy Services
Here Brian acknowledges that Fort Collins DER goal is only 5% by 2030. He doesn’t mention that Denver’s goal is 30% and that academic research suggests 45% of US electric demand could be met with rooftop solar. He mentions that progress has been made over the years on renewable energy, which is true and good, but doesn’t address the questions or requests of the constituents. If you’re in the market for home batteries, then FCU’s new battery rebate program might be good for you, but it doesn’t move the needle much on preventing new gas plants. The mentioned collaboration with CSU is a joke. The graph provides very little useful information and the links to potentially useful information don’t work. He doesn’t mention that FCU turned down CSU on collaborating to create a VPP, or that FCU blocked a developer from implementing vehicle to grid and VPP in their new neighborhood. The presentation that he attached demonstrates that the utility is concerned with managing VPP, not maximizing potential.
They are responding to citizen request with public relations and a dog and pony show. Fort Collins residents need and deserve better leadership from our local elected officials.