Let's Keep Our Energy Options Open

I am very supportive of this: keeping our energy options open by exploring creating a Minneapolis municipal utility for electricity and/or natural gas.

It's clear to me that Minneapolis residents want to wean ourselves from fossil fuels and nuclear power, and to use energy more efficiently.  The existing utilities are not moving us towards that goal as quickly as we could if we took democratic control of our utilities.

The City runs a very successful water utility, so successful that we sell water to other surrounding communities.  Water is one of the highest-rated services provided by the City.  We can clearly run a utility well, at a reasonable cost.  Along with the fact that many other cities - including both small communities and major metropolitan areas - already have municipal utilities, this gives me the comfort to move towards creating a municipal utility.

As the energy utility franchise agreements expire, it's the right time for us to ask these big questions.  I look forward to working on the campaign to keep our energy options open.