community and would allow any excess energy revenue to be reinvested in Boulder." The study was, however, all predictive and acknowledged many uncertainties. 2017: "The City of Boulder, along with 14 other parties, signed a stipulation filed with the Public Utilities Commission, which gave the commission the opportunity to evaluate a Colorado Energy Plan Portfolio during the pending Electric Resource Plan proceeding." Results: The municipalization effort's most significant expenses have been from delays and regulatory roadblocks. In the last four years, Boulder has been involved in legal proceedings with Xcel at the local and state levels, and courts have ruled both in favor of and against municipalization. As of 2/26/18 Boulder has "two agreements done" — the interim cost agreement and the easement agreement — and are "working on a final agreement on costs" in the process of the city's negotiations with Xcel Energy. San Francisco Key Motivating Factors: The California energy crisis spiked public support for publicly owned and controlled municipal utilities. Timeline of Significant Events: 1990s: Angered by power outages and rate hikes San Franciscans engaged in various attempts to municipalize their electricity. 2001: Two ballot propositions which would have enabled the city to municipalize its electricity faced strong opposition from the incumbent utilities. Both ballot propositions were defeated, one by a narrow margin of 500 votes. 2002: Advocates tried ballot measures once more but were outspent by the incumbent utilities, which spent over $2 million. Results: This is a key example of a place where several attempts to municipalize have failed giving evidence to the importance of the transaction costs associated with municipalization. Cost-benefit analysis Political/transaction costs The costs of municipalization tend to both front loaded and high. The largest costs come from the process of passing a ballot measure and acquiring the utility company. Although these many seem simple at face value these steps are often extremely costly and difficult because of the financial and political power that incumbent utilities possess. Still it is much more cost effective to purchase existing infrastructure in fact all processes of municipalization since the 1980s have purchased the incumbent utility assets. And the cost to the acquisitions has not been cheap, "most public power takeovers are in the vicinity of 140% of book value." Once the utilities have been acquired, local governments face the steep costs of financing the transition and developing the expertise to run a comprehensive system of