By Fort Collins (CO) Mayor Ray Martinez
August 5, 2002

The city of Fort Collins Summer season is heating up, and so is electricity use. Some wonder: as the demand for electricity in our city grows, what happens to emission levels from our power sources? It turns out that Platte River Power Authority, our sole supplier of electricity for Fort Collins, has plans in place to reliably meet our electrical needs, while actually reducing future emissions from its power plants. Since its inception in the early 1970's, Platte River has maintained a strong environmental record, consistently operating its generating resources well below permitted levels. The Rawhide Energy Station, Platte River's largest generation source, (owned by four Colorado cities: Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont, and Estes Park) is ranked as one of the cleanest coal plants in the nation. It has produced the lowest combined sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOX) emission Looking to the future, things are getting even better. Platte River's Board of Directors (of which I am a member) has a proactive policy to evaluate and implement environmental improvements. Recently, Platte River made a change to its operations that dramatically reduces particulate emissions (soot) during the startup of Rawhide. During normal operations, filter baghouses (giant vacuum cleaners) are used to remove over 99.9 percent of the particulates from burning coal are removed before they reach the air. Platte River successfully tested ways to remove more SO2 from the air leaving Rawhide's stack and is evaluating new technologies that significantly reduce NOX emissions at Rawhide.

Looking to the future, things are getting even better. Platte River's Board of Directors (of which I am a member) has a proactive policy to evaluate and implement environmental improvements. Recently, Platte River made a change to its operations that dramatically reduces particulate emissions (soot) during the startup of Rawhide. During normal operations, filter baghouses (giant vacuum cleaners) are used to remove over 99.9 percent of the particulates from burning coal are removed before they reach the air. Platte River successfully tested ways to remove more SO2 from the air leaving Rawhide's stack and is evaluating new technologies that significantly reduce NOX emissions at Rawhide.

Emission reductions are also occurring at other plants where Platte River owns an interest. Platte River is using clean-burning natural gas in new generation facilities. With existing and planned improvements, the total SO2 and NOX emissions associated with electricity usage will be lower in the future than they are today, even as electricity usage continues to rise. All of this is being done voluntarily, as part of Platte River's proactive environmental policy.

As citizens of Fort Collins, we own our local electric utility and are a partner in the Platte River Power Authority. These partnerships enable us to provide reliable, low cost, environmentally responsible energy. We are proud of our environmental performance and hope the citizens of Fort Collins share that pride. We will continue to seek cost effective ways to reduce emissions from existing and future resources while maintaining an electrical supply that is reliable and reasonably priced. As individuals, we can also help further reduce emissions through energy conservation. Some simple things that all of us can do this summer include:

• Setting thermostats at 76 to 78 degrees (or above)
• Turning off electrical appliances and air conditioning when not needed
• Using fans for cooling, rather than air conditioning, especially at night
• Installing quality windows and adding insulation
• Planting more trees or shrubs for shade
• Purchasing high efficiency lights and appliances

For more information about city of Fort Collins utilities, please see the following websites: www.fcgov.com/utilities and www.prpa.org.