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City staff propose removing cannabis energy-offset and reporting requirements
Summary
City staff told the Environmental Advisory Board they will ask city council to strike energy-offset and semiannual energy-reporting requirements for licensed cannabis cultivation, citing a shrinking industry, enforcement challenges and declining fee revenue; first reading is scheduled for Sept. 3, public hearing Sept. 17.
Carolyn Elam, senior manager in the department, told the Environmental Advisory Board that staff will recommend to city council removing the cannabis energy-offset requirement and related reporting. "So we've proposed removing the offset requirement, and it would be effective based on our last billing cycle, which would be, July of last year," Elam said, and staff said the ordinance draft will reach council for first reading on Sept. 3 with a public hearing set for Sept. 17.
Elam summarized the ordinance's history: the 2013 rule required licensed cannabis cultivation to use on-site solar, community solar subscriptions, or Xcel Energy's Windsource program; because many cultivators lease space and lack site control, on-site solutions were often infeasible and Windsource did not deliver additional emissions reductions as anticipated. Jonathan Cohen (private initiatives) and board members emphasized the administrative burden of maintaining compliance for a now-small cohort of licensees. Elam said the industry once included roughly 46'47 cultivation facilities and at its peak represented an added roughly 3% of the community's energy use, but the number of local cultivators has declined substantially and fee collections have fallen.
Staff asked the board for feedback to include in the council memo and said they do not anticipate a large volume of public comment, though they will not be surprised if some people sign up at the public hearing. The proposal would also remove semiannual energy-reporting requirements for medical and recreational licenses while retaining the Energy Impact Offset Fund as a mechanism to spend down existing commitments.
