Gene Camp’s recommendation that the Colorado Public Utilities Commission reject the separation plan Boulder submitted to establish a municipal electric utility sets up an interesting test of City Council’s relationship with the real world.

Camp is the PUC’s chief engineer and manages its energy section staff. As always, anything is possible, but his recommendation is a serious blow to Boulder’s hopes of establishing a municipal electric utility anytime soon. If the commission agrees with the staff recommendation and rejects Boulder’s current application, the city will go back to the drawing board yet again.

Not as damaging but just as telling was testimony before the PUC by IBM, a major city employer, which expressed doubts about Boulder’s ability to provide the risk-free electric service it requires and asked that its campus be excluded from the separation plan the city proposed.

If you ever read Don Quixote, you have a feel for how this tale is going. Our heroes have virtuous hearts, but their grasp of reality is in doubt.

Read more at The Boulder Daily Camera.