I was alarmed to read in recent letters to the editor the attacks on 10-year LPEA board member Jeff Berman. Jeff is an expert in his position and a dedicated member of the LPEA board who works hard for his community. He should be re-elected to the board for District 3 when ballots are mailed the first week of May. As an electrical engineer, Jeff is one of the most professionally qualified members of the LPEA board. His professional training and experience in the solar industry are invaluable assets to the board and our community – not a conflict of interest as Jeff’s opponents on the board have insinuated. No doubt, if an LPEA candidate were a former coal-fired, power-plant engineer, supporters of coal power would view that as an asset to the LPEA board.
Jeff is an advocate for renewable energy, in part, because those resources are the future of electricity generation in Colorado.
We need board members who can help position LPEA for the future of energy, and no current member is more qualified than Jeff. The attacks on him, including the insinuation he is conflicted by involvement in the solar energy industry, are not about Jeff’s record or qualifications.
By any measure, he is supremely qualified and highly engaged in his position on the LPEA board. Instead, the attacks are more about his opponents’ unwillingness to support the inevitable move away from dirty, outdated coal energy and toward cleaner, local energy sources. Re-electing Jeff to the LPEA board is the best way to show our community supports that clean future, not the dirty past.
Susan Coulter
Durango
