Clean Energy Action Alert
Colorado Springs Utilities is proposing major changes to net metering that would affect over 9,000 local solar customers and would reduce the value of rooftop solar. Under net metering, customers with solar panels pay when they use more electricity than their panels produce, but receive credit when their panels produce more electricity and send it onto the energy grid. We need your voice to keep this unfair proposal from being adopted.
Independent research shows that at deployment levels like ours, the typical bill impact on non-solar customers from net metering is likely less than $1 per month. Source: NREL 2025 analysis. However, CSU states that is proposal would create new monthly charges for many solar customers averaging about $25 per month. Depending on usage patterns and demand-charge exposure, some households could see increases of near $50 per month. More than 9,000 local solar customers could be affected. Read the CSU overview. City Council will hold a hearing on Tuesday, October 14th at City Council Chambers, and will vote on the issue at its October 28th meeting.
We need you to appear at the City Council meeting to ask Council to protect net metering. You can also e-mail Council to oppose the rate increase. You can use this pre-drafted message prepared by Colorado Renewable Energy Society as a model, and if you are a solar net metering customer, personalize it with your story. Click here for the draft email!
October News
Conservation Report
By Jim Lockhart
For updates on the group's campaigns and issues, please click here!
Bright Future Breakfast
Join us on Tuesday October 14, at 8:00 AM for a Bright Future Breakfast before the City Council's first hearing on rooftop solar rates, which starts at 9 AM.
Colorado Spring Utilities (CSU) says it's committed to clean, affordable energy, but its new proposals tell a different story.
Right now, the utility is proposing an increased monthly fee on rooftop solar customers. That means families who've invested their own money to save energy and lower bills would be penalized for doing the right thing. Meanwhile, CSU is weighing whether to delay the retirement of its Nixon coal plant and pursue new gas expansion- that would lock ratepayers into decades of higher costs and more pollution.
You have the power to help push for a better, fairer energy future for Colorado Springs.
We will have hot vegan and vegetarian breakfast and coffee, PLUS experts and organizers who will help you speak up at the meeting and stand up for clean, affordable solar energy in our community.
Let's use this meeting to send a strong message to CO Springs city council and CSU: We deserve a bright, affordable, and fair energy future.
No Kings, Part 2 Protest
Sierra Club Pikes Peak Group will be participating in the No Kings, Part 2 protest being held on October 18th from 12:00 - 3:00 PM at American the Beautiful Park. This is a follow up to the June event that brought out over 10,000 people from the Pikes Peak region, proclaiming in one voice to the Trump Administration that there are NO KINGS in America. There will be speakers, petitions, workshops, food trucks, and a march downtown.
The Pikes Peak group will have a table at the event with information about our group and ways to get involved to help protect the environment here in Colorado. We are looking for volunteers to help staff the booth during the event. Whether you are a seasoned volunteer or a newbie to the cause, this is a fantastic way to get involved! Please register at the below link if interested.
We hope to see you on the 18th. America belongs to her people, and we will have our voices heard!
Click here to volunteer for No Kings.
Call for Executive Committee Members
Do you have a love of the outdoors and an interest in protecting it here in the Pikes Peak Region? The Pikes Peak Group of the Colorado Chapter of Sierra Club is looking for volunteers to serve on its Executive Committee.
The Executive Committee is made up of Sierra Club members from the Pikes Peak Region who volunteer to oversee the activities of the Pikes Peak Sierra Club Group and to work with other volunteers and with the Colorado Chapter of Sierra Club to achieve our local environmental goals. The Committee normally meets once a month in a virtual, online meeting. Each elected Executive Committee member will serve a 2-year term that will begin January 1, 2026.
Candidates should have a passion for protecting land, air, and water here in the Pikes Peak Region and some knowledge of local politics and conservation issues or a willingness to learn. Good leadership and communications skills together with the ability to work as part of a team are definite plusses, as are experience or interest in fundraising, lobbying, and political action. We are also looking for candidates with a commitment to social justice, equity, and protecting human rights.
Candidates must have a current Sierra Club membership and should be willing to commit at least 8 hours a month to the Pikes Peak Group.
If you are interested in becoming an Executive Committee candidate, or if you would simply like to learn more about this opportunity, contact Conservation Chair, Jim Lockhart. Please respond to this invitation by October 18, 2025.
Creek Week El Pomar Clean Up
On the morning of October 4th, Pikes Peak Executive Committee member, Chuck Donachy, lead a group of seven dedicated volunteers on a clean-up of our adopted El Pomar section of Fountain Creek. This was part of the larger Creek Week event organized by the Fountain Creek Watershed District. The group picked up over ten bags of garbage from the edge of the creek. Please keep an eye out for our next clean up, it is a fun and important way to help keep our region free of litter!