[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: State Legislation to reduce carbon emissions of cannabis grow operations

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Cowles, Macon

Channel 4 in Denver ran a piece this week "Marijuana Warehouses Creating Massive Energy Demand, Emissions" focusing on MJ grow facilities. You can see the segment here:

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/12/03/marijuana-warehouses-creating-massive-energy-demand-emissions/


The piece s based on a paper by a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley Federal Lab in California. The paper is available here: http://evan-mills.com/energy-associates/Indoor.html


Bottom line: grow ops in the US today consume annually about $6 billion of electricity. The production of a single joint of MJ under current operating conditions releases 2 pounds of carbon into the atmosphere. Total consumption in this sector represents
 about 1% of total electricity consumption in the US.


There is an easy fix for this in Colorado: require all grow ops to subscribe to Xcel's Windsource for 100% of their power  or buy REC's that fully offset the facility's carbon emissions.


Why are you singling out Cannabis when so many other things use more energy?


The author, who has spent his career rsearching the carbon emissions of industrial processes and buildings answers this question as follows: "The study hardly singles out Cannabis. On the contrary, there has been a de facto double standard for decades
 in which virtually every other energy use has been met with efforts to improve efficiency and reduce emissions.  Cannabis should no more be singled out for attention than it should be overlooked.  Moreover, it is highly energy-intensive."


I will be out of town on business for the Council's breakfast meeting this week with the Boulder delegation. But I urge all of you to do this easy thing to roll back carbon emissions: require all state grow ops to use energy from renewable sources. Dickey
 Lee, Rollie, KC, Matt and Jonathan: which one of you might be interested in carrying this legislation?


Thanks very much.
















Macon Cowles
Boulder City Council Member





1726 Mapleton Ave.








Boulder, Colorado 80304
CowlesM at bouldercolorado.gov
(303) 447-3062
(303) 638-6884