Coloradans featured in project highlighting “Voices for 100% Renewable Energy”
Environment Colorado
For more information: Anna Hofmann – (202) 461-2453
The Coloradans are profiled in a national project, Voices for 100% Renewable Energy, featuring photos, testimonials, and videos from a wide array of individuals from across America – from academics, to mayors and other public officials, to community leaders, to business and non-profit leaders – all embracing a steady and swift transition to clean, renewable energy.
Coloradans featured in the in the project include Aspen Mayor Steve Skadron; Congressman Jared Polis; Shalini Ramanathan, VP Origination from RES in the Americas; Angie Fyfe from ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability USA; Marie Venner, the Chair of CatholicNetwork.US; Hunter Lovins, President of Natural Capital Solutions; and Dave Renne, the President of the International Solar Energy Society.
“We’re inspired by people like Congressman Polis, Mayor Skadron, and Hunter Lovins who know we can, and must, shift to 100 percent renewable energy,” said Rob Sargent, Energy Program Director at Environment America. “We’re thrilled to share some of their stories through this project. Our hope is that it will motivate the many folks who know we need a swift, steady, and complete transition from dirty to clean energy to lean into the effort.”
The people featured in the project cited a range of environmental, economic, equity, social, and health benefits from the transition to 100 percent renewable energy. Most focused on the urgent need to eliminate climate-altering carbon pollution. Others simply believe that it’s common sense and good economics to save energy and to harness unlimited, pollution-free energy sources.
Aspen, Colorado, was one of the first cities in the United States to achieve the goal of generating 100% of their electricity from renewable sources. “The City of Aspen set a goal to reach 100% renewable by 2015, and we are proud that we achieved this goal,” says Aspen Mayor Steve Skadron. “It’s through a lot of hard work, strong leadership, a commitment to a long-term goal, and having a vision that allowed us to get here. In addition to providing clean electricity to our town, we are also able to offer some of the lowest rates for electricity in the state of Colorado.”
Congressman Jared Polis is working to make the 100% renewable goal a reality at the national level. “I am proud to lead federal legislation to move the nation toward 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. In my district, Colorado State University and its students are taking the lead, pledging to commit the university to being powered by 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and developing the technology to achieve that goal,” says Representative Polis.
Shalini Ramanathan says, “Utilities in Colorado have figured out how to integrate high amounts of wind power into the grid – with no impact on the reliability that customers expect. A low carbon grid is possible today with the technology we already have.”
Marie Venner, Chair of CatholicNetwork.US, says ““As people of faith, we are called to value the sanctity of all life on this earth and care of our common home. The threat presented by climate change impacts us all. Caring for life, which necessarily includes future generations, requires us to turn around now to get off of fossil fuels.”
Dave Renne says, “As President of the International Solar Energy Society, I have been supporting the global movement to a carbon-free 100% renewable energy system meeting all of our end-use energy needs, not just electricity, but also heat and transport. This movement must also support the goal for everyone around the world to have access to clean, modern energy sources. The members of our Society, as well as those of the American Solar Energy Society, are demonstrating that such a transformation of our energy system is certainly feasible at a technical level, but we must work hard to ensure that the political will and the financial resources are there to make this happen.”
“For years, we’ve been told that pollution from dirty fuels was the price we had to pay for progress,” said Anna Hofmann, a clean energy associate working with Environment Colorado. “Those days are over. My confidence that we can make the shift to clean renewable energy has been boosted by the conversations I’ve had with so many people we’ve profiled in the Voices for 100% Renewable project.”
To view Voices for 100% Renewable Energy, go to www.100percentrenewable.org
