September 03, 2014 01:03 PM UTC

The Chamber, a Con, a Watermelon Farmer - and Bad Math

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• by: MichaelBowman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

The US Chamber is out today with their latest schlep for Captain Cory…using the very same math our favorite watermelon farmer used last Spring when the Wray Republican's 'hair on fire' moment resulted in a blatantly false tweet concerning the Wray School District.  As anyone who travels to Wray would know, the wind turbine that stands as a sentinel to Wray's south gate is owned by the local school district. The turbine, the first school-owned, commercial scale installation in the state produces 100% of the school districts energy needs – and as an added bonus their excess production is sold to the City of Wray under a long-term contract.  In total, this community effort has stabilized the electricity rates in Wray – and given the contractual agreement between the city and the school, it would be impossible for the school's energy costs to rise a single penny; the sales of the excess production provide a new revenue stream for the district, a source of pride for the town and a hedge on future price increases of fossil-fuel generated electrons.

All of this because we invested in local, clean energy production. And this model of distributed energy production is the future.

But simple mathematical equations don't seem to slow down, nor interrupt, the (lack of) neuron activity of a devout Fossilonian.

Perhaps the Senator forgot that Wray's electricity provider, the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska, isn't subject to the obligations of Senate Bill 252.  Even if SB252 caused electricity prices to rise (it didn't and it won't), the Wray School District wouldn't be affected.  Perhaps he knew it all along. 

I'll let you form your own conclusions.

Today's launch of the latest false attack on Senator Udall's energy record is no surprise.  It's from the playbook.  What they don't want you to know is that Colorado residential electricity rates are 5 percent below the national average and commercial rates are 2.9 percent lower than the national average (thanks to the leadership of then-Congressman Udall in 2004).  What they don't want low-info voters in rural, eastern Colorado to know is that it was the leadership of Senator Udall that laid the foundation for the nearly $6 billion in wind projects that exist today – and today fills our rural county coffers with new tax revenue while simultaneously giving our urban counterparts some of the cheapest electricity in the nation.

A win-win for Coloradans.  Or as Brophy and Gardner might describel it, "A War on Rural Colorado".

They also don't want you to know that it is the fusion of our emerging wind and solar developments, already in place thanks to the Senator Udall's leadership, coupled with our state's natural gas reserves, that put our state on a preemptive trajectory (the Ritter 'Clean Air Clean Jobs Act), lowering our Greenhouse Gas Emissions inventory and putting us already in near-compliance with the proposed EPA Clean Power Plan.  It's because of the actions of the visionary political leadership of this state , including Senator Udall, that brings us this bounty and the nation's second-most aggressive RPS (30% by 2020)

Good public policy matters – and Senator Udall has been on the right side of energy policy for as long as I've known him. 

The one thing that is true about the ad is the one thing where both the Chamber and the Senator have (some) common ground: Senator Udall is open to the permitting of KXL; the Chamber desperately wants it approved.  Ironically, it's that agreement that is likely to give us the one thing they want to warn you about: higher energy costs.

Colorado has been on the cutting edge of social change for a decade.  It's what we do.  And if you're an environmentalist frustrated with what you believe is too cozy a relationship between the Senator and the natural gas industry, please digest the totality of his contributions to where we are today before you think that under-voting or voting in protest will enhance our leadership.  I share your frustrations with many things going on in our state regulatory arena today – but choose your battles.  The chess game is underway.

Think twice before you cast a #QuidProKoch.