Supreme Court Allows Controversial Water Bills to be on 2012 Ballot
Update: the Colorado State Supreme Court rulings allowing for the ballot initiatives #3 and #45 to move forward are below. Thank you to the Colorado Water Congress for making them easily accessible. Yesterday, April 16, 2012, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that two controversial ballot proposals attempting to eliminate private property in water rights each […]
Chinese Takeover or Partnership for Vestas?
Vestas Wind Systems A/S and 1,700 Colorado employees could see a takeover bid by one of the two largest Chinese wind manufacturers: Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, citing unnamed sources, reports that Sinovel Wind Group and Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology, the No. 1 and 2 Chinese wind-turbine makers respectively, have discussed takeover bids with bankers. Reuters, […]
Not much BTU for the buck
Congressman Cory Gardner was on my radio show this morning defending his plan to first extend and then phase out the production tax credit (PTC) for wind energy. My colleague Michael Sandoval and I are on record as opposing the PTC, and all other energy subsidies. Now we have additional evidence that renewables are so […]
Poetic justice for an eco gangster
Score one for common sense. The Colorado Public Advocate reports that Dr. Ann Maest, a scientist with Boulder-based Stratus Consulting, dropped out of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mining conference this week in Denver amid challenges to her credibility following accusations that she fudged data to support a massive lawsuit against Chevron and its drilling […]
Baker out at PUC
Public Utilities Commissioner Matt Baker is leaving the PUC to join the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, a left-leaning non-profit, as “an officer in its Environment Program” foundation officials announced yesterday. Former Governor Bill Ritter appointed the environmental activist Baker in 2008, and his term had expired without current Governor John Hickenlooper acting to reappoint […]
Confiscating your water rights
This column appeared originally in the Greeley Tribune on Thursday, March 29. Colorado Ballot Proposal Would Confiscate Water Rights by J. Craig Green, PE In this November’s election, voters may be asked to destroy Colorado’s system of water rights. A pair of ballot proposals would confiscate the water rights of cities, water districts, farmers, and […]
EPA bans construction of new coal plants
Today, the EPA announced new limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. For once, industry and environmental groups are in agreement: these new limits, they say, will effectively ban the construction of new coal plants. As Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, put it, the new limits mark the “end of an […]
Fracking: Chemicals, Cancer, and Relative Risks
The Colorado School of Public Health (CSPH) at the University of Colorado recently announced an article that will be published this month in the journal Science of the Total Environment. The article is based on a study of air pollution resulting from oil and gas development (including hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”) in Garfield County. According […]
Fix is in: Senator misses testimony, knows to vote with Xcel
Senator Betty Boyd, a democrat member of the State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee, was not present in the committee hearing for any of the testimony either for or against HB 1172, the carbon tax repeal. Yet she knew exactly how to vote — against electricity ratepayers, against the environment, and for Xcel Energy. According […]
The Truth About Fracking and Water Scarcity
This post will be the first in series on hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), in which Independence Institute research associate, Donovan Schafer, will take on specific issues related to fracking. In this post he focuses on the claim that fracking will deplete Colorado’s water resources. Enjoy! Two recent articles—one in the Denver Post and another in the […]
Pat Stryker waiting for more taxpayer money to fund Abound
Leftist billionaire heiress Pat Stryker is waiting to see if taxpayers via the Department of Energy (DOE) will throw another $10 million at Stryker’s failed thin-filmed solar panel manufacturer Abound Solar before she puts any more of her own money into the Colorado-based company reports Eric Wesoff of GreenTech Media: The firm awaits $10 million from the […]
Chevy instructs how to gouge Colorado taxpayers
Buy a $40,000 Chevy Volt and taxpayers in Colorado and across the country will pick up nearly one third of the cost plus provide a permit to use Colorado’s HOV lanes free. Chevy blasted a “radio advisory,” which I received for my show on News Talk 1310, bragging about taxpayers footing the bill: Colorado residents […]
