Holy Cross Energy services more than 40,000 customers in the Vail and Roaring Fork Valleys and later this year, the non-profit provider will urge customers to use less electricity. The company will do so by implementing the Inverted Block Rate Structure. It creates blocks of energy use, and if you move up a block, you will be charged more per kilowatt hour.
Holy Cross Board members presented their plan to Pitkin County Commissioners Tuesday and Commissioner Michael Owsley asked why the company was moving toward implementing the plan if it will not be a money-maker for the Holy Cross. Holy Cross responded by saying its a philosophical shift, consistent with environmental issues. The company hopes it prompts people to use more renewable energy sources, like solar panels and wind energy.
Holy Cross also set up a goal to be 20-percent renewable by the year, 2015. I notice these "goals" are becoming more common with companies, and not just utilities. The US Department of Energy's Building America Program wants to create marketable zero-energy homes by 2020 and the City of Aspen's Canary Initiative wants to reduce the City's greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by the year, 2050.
The goals make since if what the Canary Initiative says is true: that 80% of US emissions of carbon dioxide come from our homes, cars and travel. The goals are a way to quantify progress in making the earth liveable for future generations.
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