With the expectation that Colorado energy company founder and CEO Chris Wright will become the country’s next head of the U.S. Department of Energy, and that Wright has a strong background in fossil fuels, particularly hydraulic fracturing in which he amassed a fortune, it is worth considering current local energy and climate change investments and future directions.
Wright may be an all-of-the-above believer when it comes to energy sources, but we can’t help thinking that because of his roots in fossil fuels that going forward he’ll be tempted to reverse much of the investments the current administration made in renewable energy, including electric vehicles and new manufacturing plants, and tip toward fossil fuels and nuclear power.
Unlike several of the incoming president’s Cabinet picks, Wright is both well-educated and -experienced in the field he’s likely to head. He has undergraduate and graduate degrees from MIT, and another graduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He also looks to have made a special deep dive into the use of nuclear power, serving on the board of a California-based nuclear reactor company.
Nuclear power, we believe, will become more accepted in the coming decades to become part of the energy mix. What we think many Americans don’t want to see is a return to fossil fuels and reduction in the speed of the move to renewables, particularly strong with this administration and the Inflation Reduction Act that Congress passed in 2022 to help communities adapt to climate change and to incentivize business investments in manufacturing.
That feeling may be especially strong in La Plata County.
La Plata Electric Association’s relationship to its parent Tri-State is well known. LPEA’s board believes significantly more local energy can be acquired, that it can be cleaner, and that it should be freed from further participation in paying for the fossil fuel plants that have been Tri-State’s mainstay.
Among the co-ops that make up Tri-State, LPEA has been one of the leaders in a move in that direction and in March 2024, the board voted to withdraw from its contract with Tri-State.
The application of green power locally? LPEA’s and La Plata County’s user-supported solar farm on the Florida Mesa could be considered today’s capstone. An investment from users at the proper economic level results in receiving electricity at a lower cost; there’s a waiting list of those who want a similar opportunity.
Electric vehicles within LPEA’s delivery system can be charged during low-use, lower-cost hours, an LPEA demand control. LPEA provides the timer and about half the installation cost.
The city of Durango investments include recently-acquired hybrid police vehicles, increasing efficiency with LED lights, plans for an all electric fleet and methane capture at Santa Rita wastewater plant, greatly reducing fossil fuel usage.
Thanks to a federal program, Durango School District 9-R has been using an electric school bus; much more significantly, solar panels are generating much district power. Fort Lewis College has been focused on emissions reductions, and does make electric bikes available to students. At the state level, the governor’s office announced this week that in the third quarter the percent of new EVs sold in Colorado exceeded industry leader California by about half a percentage point.
“Drill, baby, drill” has been a popular refrain among some, but the U.S. is already producing more fossil fuel energy than ever, and it’s very possible company executives recognize that the present and the future belong to renewables.
Chris Wright has been talking about the need to provide power to locations that don’t have any, or have too little, which is admirable. We’ll soon learn what type of power that will be.
