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Why a CRES Strategic Plan?
by
Morey Wolfson
October, 2006
In July, the Colorado Renewable Energy Society (CRES) Board of
Directors developed a strategic vision to guide our membership
organization and provide the public with an awareness of the
principles that motivate Colorado’s renewable energy leaders. The
plan is titled CRES Energy Vision for Colorado.
The energy, economic, and environmental challenges
facing Colorado are self-evident, and the best way to harmonize
these challenges is through energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Information always precedes action, and the information
contained in the CRES strategic vision provides the necessary
informational framework that precedes citizen action. When CRES
created its first strategic plan in 2001, it contained a vision of a
Colorado renewable portfolio standard that many people outside of
the renewable energy community considered to be a pipedream. Three
years later, what had been considered too idealistic and impractical
materialized in the form of Amendment 37. The vision contained in
2001 CRES strategic plan is now materializing in big wind and solar
announcements from Xcel Energy, who is required by law to meet the
will of the people.
But we have a lot more work ahead of us, as the powers
that be at the big utilities and their fossil fuel suppliers are
busy planning a coal-fired electric generation future that will lock
us and our children and grandchildren into outdated, polluting
technology for the next fifty years. Renewable energy and
efficiency? “Sorry,” will be the response. “We have put billions of
dollars down. The pipeline is full, and we intend to get recovery on
our investment.”
Since we are on the verge of electing a new governor
and legislature, now is the time to ensure that the voice of the
renewable energy community is heard. The CRES Energy Vision for
Colorado provides citizens with the talking points to initiate an
intelligent conversation with candidates and community leaders who
may not have yet realized the gravity of the need to rapidly move
into an efficient renewable era.
What is needed more than ever is an infusion of highly
motivated, articulate, community leaders into the CRES organization.
We exist on the volunteer contributions of prescient individuals who
recognize the central importance of powering an advanced economy
with innovative renewable energy technologies in the most energy
efficient way possible. The way forward is through first
understanding, and then communicating the interactions of renewable
energy technologies, the largely monopolistic energy market place,
and the critically important role of policy in stimulating
technological innovation and change in the energy markets.
Colorado has a highly educated citizenry that is keenly
interested in designing sustainable society. These
citizens—including everyone that is reading this—benefits by the
CRES strategic vision. Commitment to resolve our energy problems is
required not only from elected officials but from citizens, in the
way that the Amendment 37 campaign galvanized citizens to vote for
renewable energy in 2004.
I encourage you to read through the CRES Energy Vision
for Colorado and commit yourself to being a public ambassador for
the renewable energy cause in Colorado.
Morey Wolfson is the
policy lead for the Colorado Renewable Energy Society Board of
Directors and helped develop of the CRES strategic plan. He is a
former utility analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
in Golden, former executive assistant to the commissioners at the
Colorado Public Utilities Commission, and a leading member of the
campaign team that helped pass Colorado Amendment 37 in 2004. |
