Karen Worminghaus is Executive Director of Boulder CarShare, a local nonprofit transportation program. Highlights from her views on how Boulder’s carbon tax is working out:

• “I don’t believe we’re on track for meeting our initial goals [for the carbon tax].”
• “The city’s initial goals weren’t even sufficient for what needs to be done.”
• “Personally I’ve reduced my energy demand as much as I can. Haven’t owned a car for seven years now.”

Dan Powers is Community Affairs Manager for the Boulder Chamber of Commerce. Here are some key points he raised in this interview:

• Boulder’s carbon tax “Still has a way to go.”
• The most difficult challenge about the carbon tax: “Convincing some people that climate change and energy efficiency are as important as city council believes.”
• Another challenge: “Measuring how [carbon tax-funded] programs affect carbon emissions.”

Earlier this month, Boulder County Commissioners agreed to put Issue 1A on the Nov. 4 ballot. This would which would allow the county to sell up to $40 million in bonds to support a loan program for “clean energy options.”

Here’s how the county explains it would work…

“$40 million in special assessment bonds for the purpose of providing financing options for renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements via a ‘Clean Energy Options Local Improvement District.’ This local improvement district would provide a voluntary mechanism for property owners — both residential and commercial — to obtain affordable financing for renewable energy improvements, such as installing a solar power system, or retrofitting a home to increase energy efficiency.

“Only property owners who elect to participate in the program would actually pay for improvements through a property tax assessment; it is not a tax based on a geographic area or a sales and use tax. The program is voluntary and property owners would have the ability to opt in to the program for a loan value specific to the energy improvements that they elect to undertake on their own property.

“Loans would be paid back through an annual special assessment on the property itself — meaning that repayment responsibility for the improvements would remain with the property if the property is sold, and thereby assure that the property owner(s) who benefits from the energy savings has the responsibility to pay back the loan, unlike home equity or other loans that require repayment in full at the time a property is sold.

“…The initial set of bonds are expected to be within the range of $14 million. The proposal would allow the County to issue bonds in several series, with flexibility for issuing both taxable and tax-exempt bonds.”

This kind of funding assistance may be a good complement to the education and marketing efforts of Boulder’s Climate Smart program. Right now, Climate Smart focuses mainly on educating and motivating area residents and businesses to improve energy efficiency and cut greenhouse gas emissions, connecting people with existing programs (such as utility rebates and weatherization assistance), and subsidizing the cost of energy audits. (Program details) While those efforts probably help cut Boulder’s carbon footprint somewhat, in tight economic times it’s harder to convince most people to do much more than switch to compact fluorescents without offering help with up-front costs.

Boulder County is able to put forward this sort of strategy thanks to the State of Colorado’s passage HB 1350 earlier this year. That law expands counties’ options for financing energy efficiency and renewable energy. It’ll be interesting see what other Colorado counties decide to try on this front.

If you want to attend: Please e-mail amy@gahran.com for an invitation by Aug. 29, 2008. Seating is limited to facilitate a constructive discussion, so please respond soon!

This half-day guided discussion will address the city’s progress in addressing climate change, as well as what Boulder can do next in this effort. We also want to put Boulder’s efforts in a broader context: How this might tie into other climate change efforts around the state?

WHO WILL ATTEND? We will include key players in the Boulder and Colorado energy and climate change scene. Attending will be a carefully selected mix of representatives from local and state government (including Sarah Van Pelt and Jonathan Koehn from the city Dept. of Environmental Affairs), area businesses, research institutes and media, along with local residents and homeowners, students, community groups and environmental organizations from Boulder and around the state.

WHY YOU SHOULD COME? Our primary goal is to encourage ways that people in Boulder (as well as Denver and throughout the state) can share ideas and information about addressing climate change. This ongoing dialogue can happen online, in public meetings, and through other means. We’re inviting you because we want to hear your ideas, preferences, and needs for that sort of discussion.

Group size is limited to facilitate an open, constructive discussion.

Questions? Contact I,Reporter’s Amy Gahran or Adam Glenn for further information.

We’ll look forward to hearing from you and having you participate.

So for the rest of the summer, we’re taking a different tack. We’ll be working with some local videobloggers to allow community members’ voices to be heard via video interviews.

I’ll be meeting with those videobloggers next week after I return from a business trip, and we should be up and running soon.

Who would you like to see interviewed here? Please comment below or e-mail me.