Earth Day CSU Utilities Board Meeting

YOUR VOICE URGENTLY NEEDED  TO SPEAK AT THE UTILITY BOARD MEETING ABOUT WHY YOU CARE ABOUT CLEAN ENERGY IN COLORADO SPRINGS Earth Day, Wed. April 22, 2015 UTILITY BOARD MEETING @ 1 p.m.

Blue River Board Room
5th Floor of South Tower in
Plaza of the Rockies 121 S. Tejon Street

 12pm: Meet at Poor Richards before the meeting to discuss if you can!

Earth Day.  What comes to your mind?

Earth Day. 24 of every 8766 hours in a year in which we celebrate our home and offer tokens of appreciation to the water, earth, air, and life that sustain us.

This Earth Day (Wednesday, April 22) could be more.  It could be.  This Earth Day could be HUGE!  Or not.  It’s up to you.  Yes, YOU.  I know, commitment is a dirty word.  Work, endless emails, family, bills, hectic life — I know, I know, I know.  But this EARTH DAY could make history in Colorado Springs.  It really could. If you want it to.

How?  

This Wednesday — EARTH DAY —  April 22nd, 2015 is the Colorado Springs Utilities Board meeting.  The two recently elected Utilities Board (City Council) members will be there getting their initial indoctrination to their new role.  BORING you say?  Perhaps.  But this Wednesday, this EARTH DAY is an opportunity to make history.  If you want to.

Tell Me How Already!

Colorado Springs Utilities consumers can speak for up to three minutes at the beginning of every Utilities Board meeting.

IMAGINE: The first hour of the meeting ON EARTH DAY is citizen after citizen standing up for three minutes to talk about our energy future.  Twenty people — that’s all it would take.  Twenty people standing up before the board — wearing GREEN, earnest and clear:

WE ARE PAYING ATTENTION.  

WE DEMAND CLEAN ENERGY. Yes, LOTS of it (50% at least!)

WE WILL NOT GO AWAY. 

Just imagine.  It would be a day the Utilities Board would not soon forget… an hour (two?) of person after person, calmly and earnestly demanding a different tune from this board that has played the same, lung-thrashing song for decades.

This Earth Day we have an opportunity.  Together, our voices are amplified.  But it depends on you.

Will you do it?  Will you speak to the utility board for one to three minutes? Will you wear GREEN?   I am going, but I am only one.  Will you join me?  Will you encourage others to do the same?

The Utilities Board meets this Wednesday (April 22) at 1 p.m. in the Blue River Board Room on the fifth floor of the South Tower in the Plaza of the Rockies (121 S. Tejon Street). We will meet at Poor Richards at noon beforehand and walk as a group to the meeting.  Signs & air masks will help us make a dramatic show as we make our case for clean energy; we’ll have supplies for those interested.
What if one person goes?  Two people?  Three? Can you imagine three?  Even if physics prevented you from attending in person, what if city council member emails and phone lines are filled hour after hour with a simple message:

WE ARE PAYING ATTENTION.  

WE DEMAND CLEAN ENERGY. Yes, LOTS of it (50% at least!)

WE WILL NOT GO AWAY. 

Wow.  People power.

Contact all council members by email at or by calling (719) 385-5986.  Find direct phone numbers here.
Remember to wear GREEN!

See you there.

What do we want from City Council in their role as managers of Colorado Springs Utilities’ energy and water operations?  Here are a few ideas…. feel free to borrow or speak to whatever comes to your heart and mind!

• I want CSU to reduce wasteful energy consumption.
•  I want CSU to stop wasting my money on antiquated, inefficient power plants that continue to pollute the air and warm our Earth.
• I want CSU to stop compromising the health of my family by burning fossil fuels.
• I want CSU to realize that “lowest cost power” should not mean sacrificing our air and our health with pollution.
• I want the city to have a long-term energy plan to have 50% of our energy come from renewable energy sources by 2030.

 

A Navajo prayer goes… “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, but borrow it from our children.” I want my elected officials to know we are too deeply in debt with the decisions of our past; we cannot afford any more loans for fossil fuels.

Prove you are not morally bankrupt by standing with us. Prove you are not beholden to the Big Money that paid for your allegiance. Prove you care for those who will outlive you. Prove through your action.  Invest in renewable energy.  Invest in energy efficiency. Invest in the future of this city.  Invest in us.

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie

“A choir is made up of many voices, including yours and mine. If one by one all go silent then all that will be left are the soloists. Don’t let a loud few determine the nature of the sound. It makes for poor harmony and diminishes the song.” ― Vera Nazarian

“I am a strong individualist by personal habit, inheritance, and conviction; but it is a mere matter of common sense to recognize that the State, the community, the citizens acting together, can do a number of things better than if they were left to individual action.” ― Theodore Roosevelt