Move Beyond Valmont: A Request for Action
This Earth Day, 4/22/12, The Repower Valmont Coalition published an op-ed in the Daily Camera laying out how an earlier closure of the Valmont Coal Plant would be a positive move for the company based on economic, human health, and environmental realities.
If you support an earlier closure of Valmont, please send an email to one of the following decision makers:
Xcel Energy Board of Directors, boardofdirectors@xcelenergy.com
Boulder County Commissioners, commissioners@bouldercounty.org
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To view the entire Daily Camera click here.
Op-ed excerpts:
For years the citizens of this community have rallied against the coal-fired Valmont Generating Station, and, in the past few months, the plant has come under scrutiny as new contamination concerns at the Valmont Butte area have begun to circulate. Right now Boulder County leaders are being called upon to address the contamination concerns from the past mining and dumping at the Butte area. While this review is under way, we also request that Xcel Energy take a serious look at their operations at the Valmont coal plant.
A golden opportunity exists for Xcel to prove itself as a community leader by addressing the on-site contamination, tackling the issue of climate disruption, and stabilizing electric rates by accelerating the planned 2017 closure of the Valmont Generating Station. It is time to ramp up energy generation by clean, local, renewable sources, instead of coal. At the Valmont Generating Station, that transition can happen now.
The newly formed Beyond Valmont Coalition is working on behalf of our community to ask Xcel Energy President David Eves to do just that — accelerate the planned closure of Valmont. Doing so would have a positive impact on the local environment, consumer rates, public health, and Xcel Energy, itself.
As the largest provider of electricity in Colorado, ratepayers look to Xcel to provide the cleanest energy at the cheapest prices. Xcel could become a champion for our community, a leader for clean energy in the utility industry, and a good actor for ratepayers and stockholders’ interests by retiring the Valmont coal-fired power plant right now.
- The Repower Valmont Coalition is comprised of: 350.org, Clean Energy Action, Colorado Ocean Coalition, Earth Guardians, Front Range Rising Tide, Greenpeace, PLAN-Boulder, Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, Sierra Club, and Wild Earth Guardians.
