ASPEN – After 13 years at the helm of the Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE), Randy Udall stepped down this month.

As the director of the department created by the governments of Aspen and Pitkin County, he helped create numerous innovative, conservation-minded programs.

Fortunately, the longtime Carbondale resident is staying put and will remain a leading voice in the region on energy issues. Udall is in high demand as a speaker at energy conferences and with conservation groups because of his grasp of the changing picture on our fossil fuel lifestyle.

Prior to joining CORE, Udall was a college drop-out who worked as a carpenter and an Outward Bound instructor before becoming a freelance writer who concentrated on energy and environmental projects.

“I wrote my first feature on global warming in 1987,” he said. “The potential impacts I mentioned – melting glaciers, threats to pikas and polar bears, reduced Colorado River runoff, longer growing seasons, intense droughts and longer fire seasons – seemed, then, to resemble science fiction.

“Of course, all that and more has come to pass,” he said.

The Aspen Times caught up with Udall last week for an exit interview on some of the most pressing energy-related issues facing the country and the region.

 Aspen Times: CORE started the unique Renewable Energy Mitigation Program in 2000. Please summarize how that works. Has it been a success?

Randy Udall: The program requires new homes in Pitkin County to meet a strict energy “budget.” Homes that exceed that budget, because they want to use fossil fuels to snowmelt a driveway or heat an outdoor pool, pay a renewable energy mitigation fee. In addition, every home over a certain size must install some sort of renewable energy system, or pay an additional smaller fee. The REMP fund has raised $6 million since its inception, and the fees themselves represent the world’s stiffest carbon dioxide tax. We use the money to install energy efficiency systems or renewable energy systems on affordable housing projects, public buildings, schools; to buy wind power; and to fund rebates on efficient appliances and solar systems.

Full Story: http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20071126/NEWS/71126002