Did you know that for every dollar you spend for electricity from LPEA, about 65 cents immediately leaves our local economy and goes to Denver to buy our power? If we could significantly increase our investment in local renewable energy generation in our community, we could keep more money here instead of sending it to Denver.
We have close to 300 sunny days a year in the LPEA territory, and credible estimates are that in the next few years we could generate up to 40 percent of our electricity here through renewable power, mostly solar. However, our current wholesale power contract imposes a limit of only 5 percent local energy generation. If we can escape that limit, then we could keep millions of our energy dollars here in our local economy, instead of sending them Denver, and also significantly slow the rate increases we have seen over the past 15 years.
The current LPEA Board has been reluctant to fully investigate how we can do this.
However, we must start on this path, and the best way to start is to elect forward-thinking leaders like Tim Wheeler to the LPEA board. LPEA election ballots will arrive in the mail April 18. Please look for your ballot and please vote for Tim Wheeler in District 4!
Bria Rubie
Durango
