John Witchel, speaking as an LPEA board member, accused me of factual inaccuracies in my candidate statement. Let’s look at those supposed inaccuracies.
He stated LPEA has no plans to generate electricity, but ideally would like to find local partners. This is directly contradicted by statements made by LPEA’s Dan Harms in a Town Hall meeting last fall. When presenting LPEA’s future energy plans, he said LPEA would like to “install another 50 megawatts of solar power within our system.”
Also looking at the LPEA’S Five-year Operational Plan, there is an initiative to “Develop large-scale solar installations.” There is no mention of partnering with local renewable energy producers in the Town Hall meeting nor in the Five-year Operational Plan.
John Witchel then makes the statement that Tri-State is deeply committed to coal. Tri-State has closed coal plants and announced the premature retirement of others. They have committed to an 80% reduction in their carbon footprint by 2030 for energy supplied to Colorado.
Then John Witchel chooses to talk about free markets. Part of a free market is contracts, and respecting contractual commitments. We entered a contract with Tri-State. At this time, we may not like it, but the reality is we have a contract and it will cost substantial money to terminate the contract early.
When John Witchel speaks, recognize his blatant conflict of interest. He is also the CEO of a solar energy company and board member of a solar finance company.
I stand as an alternative to the lack of transparency provided by Tim Wheeler.
John Purser
Durango
