Power couple on the rocks.

• Author: Best, Allen

Climate-conscious Boulder explores split with Xcel

DONALD AND IVANA TRUMP. ELIZABETH TAYLOR AND RICHARD BURTON. THE CITY OF BOULDER AND XCEL ENERGY.

OK the latter divorce is not a done deal, nor is it as titillating. No shouting, no drunken skirmishes. In fact, Boulder city officials have conceded that, among the nation's investor-owned utilities, Xcel may be among the best.

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But given the magnitude of the climate risk, Boulder finds Xcel lacking, a lead-footed dance partner. Some liken Xcel's effort to innovate to that of a sumo wrestler trying to perform ballet. And, as a monopoly, they say, it has too little incentive to be entrepreneurial.

So, better to dance solo? Since refusing to renew its franchise with Xcel in 2010, the city has spent $7.6 million to investigate whether it can establish its own electric utility.

A critical question is how much Boulder would have to pay Xcel for its transformers, distribution lines and other infrastructure. City planners have estimated the value at anywhere from $150 million to $400 million, but most likely $214 million. Xcel, of course, will likely think more. A court will decide, and Boulder voters ultimately will choose--possibly before the end of 2017--whether it's worthwhile to become Colorado's 30th municipal utility.

Colorado's 29 existing muni's range from Colorado Springs, population 439,886, to Fleming, east of Sterling, population 400. Some care only about cost and reliability. Fort Collins and others are focused on shrinking the carbon intensity of fuels. Aspen Electric leads all in that department. Last year, it achieved a 100 percent carbon-free portfolio, one of the few in the nation. It did so while maintaining middlin' electric rates.

And Boulder would like a carbon-free portfolio, too. It embraced Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas reductions in 2002 (only partially realized) and a carbon tax in 2006, a first in the country. Local activists pushed the city council toward more muscular action. In 2011, by a thin majority, voters agreed to a tax that essentially funds the investigation of municipalization.

No insurmountable barriers have been identified in that investigation. Ancillary benefits have. One is economic development, says Heather Bailey, who directs the city's investigation. Boulder is thick with ideas-people and business builders, including 30-some companies already engaged in the energy sector. The common denominator is change. They sense an opportunity in what former Gov. Bill Ritter calls the new energy economy.

Grid resiliency would also benefit. Bailey says the floods of...