Mountain rural electric co-op flips to ‘supermajority of progressives’

The director of sustainability for Aspen Skiing Company on Monday trumpeted the results of a rural electric association board election that saw the local co-op flip to “a supermajority of progressives who support clean energy and energy efficiency, stable prices and fiscal prudence.”

Aspen’s Auden Schendler sent out an email that echoed a pre-election campaign to “Vote the Women” in the Holy Cross Energy Board Election, where incumbent Lynn Dwyer won the western district over a field of four that included alternative energy advocate Randy Udall.

Dwyer got 1,522 votes to 1,105 for Clemons Kopf, 968 for Udall and 422 for Thomas McBrayer. In the northern district, which includes Aspen’s rival ski town of Vail, Megan Gilman won with 1,516 votes to 1,267 for Eagle County surveyor Dan Corcoran, 521 for Erik Lundquist, 445 for former Eagle County Commissioner Arn Menconi and 384 for Scott Prince.

“This year marks the end of a four-year period in which the board flipped from extremely conservative to remarkably progressive, likely the single most important step we could have taken in our region to address climate change,” Schendler wrote.

Holy Cross is already one of the state’s more progressive rural electric co-ops, with 55,000 members stretching from Vail to Aspen. Co-op board elections have become contentious local battlegrounds in the ongoing debate over global climate change, with the state’s largest co-op, the Intermountain Rural Electric Association on the state’s Front Range, steadfastly resisting efforts to reform its board.

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