Lawrence residents invited to forum on city renewable energy goals

Lawrence residents had a chance Tuesday night to weigh in on the city’s clean-energy goals at a forum at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St., as the city remained far from the targets it set under Ordinance 9744. The 2020 ordinance called for 100% clean, renewable electricity for municipal operations by 2025 and 100% clean, renewable energy citywide by 2035, and city documents say energy and transportation account for about 83% of emissions within Lawrence city limits.

The event brought together the Climate and Energy Project, the Kansas Chapter of the Sierra Club and the League of Women Voters of Lawrence-Douglas County. Organizers used the forum to open a public conversation about why the city was still lagging so far behind its stated timetable, after city figures showed Lawrence was powering only about 3% of its operations with clean energy at the end of 2025.

Lawrence’s own sustainability materials say the ordinance was adopted in March 2020 and set additional milestones beyond the 2025 municipal target. Those include 100% clean electricity citywide by 2030 and 100% clean energy citywide by 2035. The city has also tied the work to earlier planning efforts, including the Climate Protection Plan and Plan 2040, and has said its next steps depend on a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan that will lay out the strategies needed to meet the goals.

A small part of that work is already visible around town. The city says it has a 100-kW solar array at Fire Station #5 near 19th and Stewart, and that the system offsets about 20% of the station’s electricity use. Public solar installations at places such as Douglas County Public Works have also become part of the local landscape as Lawrence weighs whether to keep pushing toward the ordinance’s original timeline or reset it.

That debate sharpened earlier in 2026, when city staff told commissioners the 2025 goal had been missed and proposed replacing the ordinance’s targets with a climate-neutrality goal by 2050. An adviser pushed back and urged city leaders to give the ordinance “more teeth” rather than repeal it. The disagreement has left Lawrence deciding not only how fast to cut emissions, but whether its existing commitments should stay in place at all.

Douglas County’s own solar fight has helped define the stakes. County commissioners approved a 600-acre solar project north of Lawrence after nearly nine hours of testimony, and county staff later moved forward with updated stormwater-management and agrivoltaics plans for the site. For Lawrence, the forum added a local venue for residents to press for what comes next on energy, costs and the city’s climate promises.