The fourth NoCo Climate Meetup was held Sunday, September 21, 2025, and it was the best attended so far. Though overall numbers were not tracked, it was clear that there were more groups, and more people, than the previous events.
Ed Behan and I picked out our spot, and got the Larimer Alliance banner set up, all out literature set out, and secured against the wind:
That black object in the back is a solar panel connected to my Bluetti AC50B battery, a 700 watt solar generating station. We didn’t use it to power anything, but it seemed appropriate to use it charge my battery back up; it was at about 50% charge when we arrived, but was 100% charged by the time we left.
Our first visitor was Senator Cathy Kipp: 
Ed and I had met with her this summer to discuss strategy for air quality monitoring. It was good to see her again.
Scott Simmons organized all this, of course, and he heads up the Northern Colorado chapter of the Climate Reality Project (see their website here). Here is Scott kicking off the event’s opening announcement:
There followed a number of speakers, some better known than others: KC Becker, Jody Shadduck-McNally, John Kefalas…and also none other than Barbara Krupnick-Goldman, who was there with 350 Colorado:
Then we split up into breakout sessions, dedicated to more localized topics. I attended the one led by Fred Kirsh, about Larimer County:
We talked a lot about PRPA, and the upcoming vote by the Fort Collins City Council to renew its contract with them. Many have complained that the PRPA is not being managed in spirit of public service to achieve its stated environmental goals. Although it had announced in 2018 that it could achieve 100% renewable energy by 2030 — when it will retire the coal burning Rawhide power plant — it changed course in 2022. Then, in 2024, it proposed that it needed to build a new 300 megawatt gas-fired peaking plant. This was heavily resisted by the local activist community here in Fort Collins, but both the Fort Collins City Council and the Larimer County Commissioners all approved it.
Interspersed with the announcements, was spirited, original music provided by AL & EL, local musicians and music teachers:
The final speaker was a CSU student, Noah (did not get his last name), who recently completed a project for Larimer County, Regional Plan Inventory for Larimer County. While there is no explicit plan on how to integrate or coordinate these efforts, it is an interesting compendium of local efforts of how they plan to deal with climate change.
There was plenty of potluck food, and Scott’s wife Chris had made a ton of bean burritos. Much networking, exchanging of contact info, and new connections happened. I myself made a couple of new contacts, and am sure they will prove useful over time.
To see more pictures, here’s is Scott’s album about it:
2025 NoCo Climate Meetup album from Scott Simmons
To see our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2371196756530914