Glendale Will Consider Greener Options

At the “Stop Gas at Grayson Again” Rally at Glendale City Hall on Sunday, February 6, 2022 (Photo – David Dowell)

GLENDALE – ColoradoBoulevard.net:

At their meeting on March 1, the Glendale City Council paused plans for a new gas plant and ordered a review of cleaner, greener options.

By News Desk

In doing so, the Council members reversed a decision from two weeks earlier, following an outpouring of public support for greener power options for the city. The prior vote, on February 15, approved a $260 million project to install gas generation equipment. The new vote defers the decision on purchasing the gas equipment until the end of 2022 so that clean energy and other alternatives can be explored.

At the March 1 meeting, Glendale Water and Power Staff made a lengthy presentation defending the 93 MW gas project. Following that presentation, the City Council heard public comment from over 70 individuals who supported revisiting the project approval in favor of clean energy. Before the meeting, City Council members had received hundreds of emails from residents with the same message.

The City Council deliberated for more than an hour over the motion brought by Councilmember Dan Brotman, with Councilmembers Ara Najarian and Ardy Kassakhian indicating support. The final vote was unanimous approval.

Elise Kalfayan, a member of Glendale Environmental Coalition Steering Committee, said:

People who’ve been homeowners for decades, parents of young children, college students and young people, and a representative calling on behalf of the Armenian National Committee of America Glendale Chapter, all spoke out for clean energy in Glendale…. The Glendale City Council was confronted with political reality: fossil fuel generation is tremendously unpopular and Glendale must forge a new path for sustainable energy.

Kate Unger, Glendale Environmental Coalition Steering Committee member, commented:

…Our fight is far from over. We call on our city leaders to make sure GWP aggressively pursues clean and distributed energy so that at the end of the year we can leave this fossil fuel project behind once and for all.

Source: GEC