Boulder council to consider ending energy-offset requirements for marijuana businesses
Boulder officials say the proposed repeal would end electricity-offset and reporting requirements for marijuana cultivation facilities, but the council has not given final approval.
Boulder City Council is scheduled to consider repealing energy-offset requirements for medical- and recreational-marijuana businesses on Sept. 17. Staff says the proposal would reduce administrative work while ending a shrinking source of funding for energy and low-income-household projects.
The council’s meeting agenda lists Ordinance 8770 for second reading and consideration of adoption. The proposal is not yet law.
The ordinance would remove four provisions from Boulder’s marijuana regulations. They require cultivation facilities to offset 100% of their electricity use through onsite renewable generation, a verified Community Solar Garden subscription or another city-approved option. They also require monthly records of energy use and its source, renewable-energy subscriptions or generation, receipts and other compliance documentation, according to the staff report and proposed ordinance.
The requirements were adopted in 2013, when marijuana cultivation was growing rapidly and consuming significant electricity, staff wrote. The city narrowed the rules to cultivation facilities in 2019. Staff now says the industry has contracted, the broader electricity grid has become less carbon-intensive, and collecting offsets has become difficult and inequitable when businesses become insolvent.
Boulder had 44 licensed marijuana businesses involved in cultivation at the industry’s peak, when cultivation accounted for about 3% of community energy use, staff said. Nine licensed cultivators remained as of June 1, 2026. Staff characterized the remaining industry’s energy use and emissions as relatively small compared with other community sources.
The report does not quantify how repeal would change electricity use or greenhouse-gas emissions. It describes a tradeoff: ending the requirement would eliminate a limited environmental benefit and reduce money available for energy conservation, renewable-energy and low-income-household projects, while freeing licensing, legal and climate staff to focus on broader, industry-neutral programs.
Under staff’s most favorable estimate, the offset program would generate about $50,000 a year if all nine remaining businesses stayed solvent and complied. That compares with roughly $400,000 to $500,000 when the Energy Impact Offset Fee program was established. The city projects a $50,000 annual revenue reduction in fiscal years 2027 and 2028 and no fiscal effect in 2026; staff says the actual forgone revenue could be lower.
If the council approves the repeal, staff says it would notify remaining licensed businesses that requirements after June 30, 2025, would not be enforced. The city bills and receives reporting for the program in arrears, with a one-year lag.
The council introduced Ordinance 8770 and approved its publication on first reading by an 8-0 vote Sept. 3, according to a published legal notice. That vote did not constitute final adoption. The council’s second-reading action had not occurred as of Sept. 13.