On Sept. 5, the Boulder Carbon Tax Tracker project held a workshop to hear perspectives on the carbon tax from a range of local stakeholders. This is the second in a series of video interviews with stakeholders done at this event.

Karen Worminghaus is Executive Director of Boulder CarShare, a local nonprofit transportation program. Highlights from her views on how Boulder’s carbon tax is working out:

• “I don’t believe we’re on track for meeting our initial goals [for the carbon tax].”
• “The city’s initial goals weren’t even sufficient for what needs to be done.”
• “Personally I’ve reduced my energy demand as much as I can. Haven’t owned a car for seven years now.”

On Sept. 5, the Boulder Carbon Tax Tracker project held a workshop to hear perspectives on the carbon tax from a range of local stakeholders. This is the first in a series of video interviews with stakeholders done at this event.

Dan Powers is Community Affairs Manager for the Boulder Chamber of Commerce. Here are some key points he raised in this interview:

• Boulder’s carbon tax “Still has a way to go.”
• The most difficult challenge about the carbon tax: “Convincing some people that climate change and energy efficiency are as important as city council believes.”
• Another challenge: “Measuring how [carbon tax-funded] programs affect carbon emissions.”

Last October, the city of Berkeley, CA voted to allow property owners to pay for energy efficiency improvements and solar systems through long-term assessment on their individual property tax bills. Now Boulder County may try something similar. If it passes, this might be welcome news to local property owners who won’t do energy efficiency and renewable energy projects without up-front funding assistance.

Earlier this month, Boulder County Commissioners agreed to put Issue 1A on the Nov. 4 ballot. This would which would allow the county to sell up to $40 million in bonds to support a loan program for “clean energy options.”

Here’s how the county explains it would work…
Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s an upcoming event we’re hosting. It’s free, and breakfast is included.

If you want to attend: Please e-mail amy@gahran.com for an invitation by Aug. 29, 2008. Seating is limited to facilitate a constructive discussion, so please respond soon!

This half-day guided discussion will address the city’s progress in addressing climate change, as well as what Boulder can do next in this effort. We also want to put Boulder’s efforts in a broader context: How this might tie into other climate change efforts around the state?

WHO WILL ATTEND? We will include key players in the Boulder and Colorado energy and climate change scene. Attending will be a carefully selected mix of representatives from local and state government (including Sarah Van Pelt and Jonathan Koehn from the city Dept. of Environmental Affairs), area businesses, research institutes and media, along with local residents and homeowners, students, community groups and environmental organizations from Boulder and around the state.

WHY YOU SHOULD COME? Our primary goal is to encourage ways that people in Boulder (as well as Denver and throughout the state) can share ideas and information about addressing climate change. This ongoing dialogue can happen online, in public meetings, and through other means. We’re inviting you because we want to hear your ideas, preferences, and needs for that sort of discussion.

Group size is limited to facilitate an open, constructive discussion.

Questions? Contact I,Reporter’s Amy Gahran or Adam Glenn for further information.

We’ll look forward to hearing from you and having you participate.

Getting a conversation going has been a major challenge for this site. We’ve put a lot of energy into that effort, but that just doesn’t seem to be the right direction for this topic in this community.

So for the rest of the summer, we’re taking a different tack. We’ll be working with some local videobloggers to allow community members’ voices to be heard via video interviews.

I’ll be meeting with those videobloggers next week after I return from a business trip, and we should be up and running soon.

Who would you like to see interviewed here? Please comment below or e-mail me.

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