Pharmaceutical Price Controls: Pay Now or Pay Later
Would you pay more for drugs now in order to ensure a wide choice of current treatments and an abundant supply of new cures twenty years from now If you said yes, you disagree with the Colorado Progressive Coalition (CPC), the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the Colorado AFL-CIO, and the Lutheran Office of […]
Is RTD Passing Gas?
Ozone is a known cancer-causing agent. It also causes lung irritation and difficulty in breathing, especially among the very young, elderly, and those with respiratory ailments. Ozone is an unstable form or oxygen. Light rail trains generate ozone. Is there a problem?
Proposed Health Care Slush Fund Violates The Public Trust
With new tax money in short supply, the legislature has a duty to prune state government. As legions of Colorado business executives can tell you, this is a nasty, unpleasant duty that is absolutely essential to an enterprises long-term survival. Unfortunately, it is a duty that some legislators seem determined to avoid.
Do We Need Warning Labels For Lies In The Library
In September 2000, publishing house Alfred A. Knopf handed professional librarians a knotty problem. It published Arming America, a book in which Emory University professor Michael Bellesiles outlined research supposedly showing that guns were rare in America from the Colonial period to the Civil War. The book was awarded Columbia Universitys Bancroft Prize in history […]
Rail transit: bigger, dumber, slower, costlier
In the age of condoms, you’d think rubber would get more respect, especially when it comes to transportation. The U.S. 36 corridor is served by one of the best regional mass transit lines in the country RTD’s Boulder-Denver bus route. But the lust for steel wheels could damn this corridor to a fate worse than T-REX.
Don't Miss the HOV to HOT Lanes Conversion Opportunity
Both the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) can expect a dramatic reduction in highway and transportation funding from traditional sources over the next few years. Colorados highway network is already overrun with travelers, yet widened and expanded highways will not be pursued.
A New Tool For Automobile Inspection & Maintenance
Federally-mandated emissions testing of automobiles in Colorado has decreased emissions, albeit much less than predicted. Recent breakthroughs in manufacturing low- emitting vehicles and in remote sensing of a moving car’s exhaust could enable Colorado to phase out or drastically increase the efficiency of treadmill-style testing centers.
A New Tool for Automobile Inspection and Maintenance
Federally-mandated emissions testing of automobiles in Colorado has decreased emissions, albeit much less than predicted. Recent breakthroughs in manufacturing low-emitting vehicles and in remote sensing of a moving car’s exhaust could enable Colorado to phase out or drastically increase the efficiency of treadmill-style testing centers.
Does RTD Flub, Fib and Cheat
Every year, the Regional Transportation District (RTD) is required to report to the Transportation Legislative Review Committee (CRS 43-2-145) about its compliance with a legislatively mandated farebox recovery ratio of 30 percent (CRS 32-9-119.7). The farebox recovery ratio means that passenger fares must pay for at least 30 percent of RTDs operating costs.
RTD Snake Charmers Have Lakewood Council In A Transit Trance
Like a cobra mesmerizing a mouse, lobbyists from RTDs utopian light rail team have convinced the Lakewood City Council to enact a city framework plan, which will set guidelines for a 22-month environmental impact study along 13th Avenue. Light rail is the ultimate goal of the framework plan, which will cost $450 million.
Monorail to Vail: An Orgy of Collectivist Abuse
The failed monorail proposal contained interesting aspects, one of them being the absurdity of its discussion as a viable proposal. Voters wisely recognized the dubious and speculative nature of the exaggerated technological and economic claims. Even if the monorail could have worked at any price, then how would this massive capital outlay ever do anything to address traffic congestion? To succeed, the monorail would have to absorb all future as well as some of the pre-existing trip demand. When expectations transcend the unlikely and range to the impossible, advocates engage in delusional fantasy.
PUC Regulations Could Dim Colorado’s Lights
Three main regulations unnecessarily restrict the supply of electricity in Colorado.
First, regulations from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission force utilities to create an inflexible plan for building power plants in Colorado, using forecasts based on unreliable and changeable data.
Second, Colorado’s electrical future is subject to bureaucratic whim through the “Public Convenience” doctrine. The future of Parker, Colorado has been put at severe risk because of this law. Without immediate regulatory change, Parker may soon face rolling blackouts and a severe power strain.
Finally, the PUC requires Xcel Energy to collect a tax from all ratepayers and then gives that money to large corporations, so that the corporations have money to buy energy- efficient products that have no benefit to the common electricity consumer.
These regulations are unfairly making electricity more costly.
