Energy & Environmental Policy

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Energy & Environmental Policy

Energy and Environmental Policy (E2P) at the Independence Institute

By all measures, life is better. Because of our ability to safely, responsibly and efficiently develop natural resources, our standard of living is up, life expectancy is up, and our environment is cleaner. Individuals prosper while also enjoying a healthy planet. If we create an atmosphere where human potential flourishes and we dare to imagine, then everyone can reap the benefits of affordable, reliable, abundant, and safe power and revel in the beauty of a thriving environment.

Our Vision

Access to affordable, reliable, abundant, safe energy and a clean environment are not mutually exclusive. At E2P we envision a Colorado where every person is in control of his or her own energy and environmental destiny. Private property owners are in the best position to protect their land and environment, and the choice of energy resources and how they are utilized should come from the demands of an innovative and free market.

What is the role of government? To remain neutral, let markets work, let individuals innovate, limit regulations, and refrain from picking winners and losers.

Our Principles

People first
Celebrate prosperity
Innovation over regulation
Commonsense conservation
Primacy of private property rights
Results over rhetoric
Reject cynicism

Free Market Energy and Environmental Policy

Embraces our entrepreneurial spirit and optimism that we can have affordable power, responsible domestic energy development, and a clean environment.
Puts individuals in the driver’s seat and allows them to control their own energy future.
Lets the choice of energy resources come from the demands of the free market, and not from the preferences of policymakers, lobbyists, or special interest groups.
Champions private property rights.
Challenges the 80-year-old, monopoly utility model of electricity generation and distribution.
Puts states ahead of Washington, D.C.
Encourages limited and consistent regulations.
Rejects taxpayer funded subsidies.
Doesn’t pick winners and losers.
Welcomes transparency.

Latest Posts

Colorado’s cruel approach to energy policy
- February 25, 2014
By Amy Oliver Cooke “Giving society cheap, abundant energy would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun,” wrote environmental doomsday prophet Dr. Paul Ehrlich in 1975. That’s a cruel statement directed at people who simply want electric lights so their children can read at night, a refrigerator to keep food from
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Coloradans can’t rely on subsidy-dependent wind energy
- February 17, 2014
This op-ed first appeared in the Greeley Tribune By Michael Sandoval When Coloradans flip on their lights or crank up their heat, they expect their electricity to be affordable, and at the very least, reliable. But the state Legislature and Gov. John Hickenlooper are forcing the opposite on Colorado — expensive and unreliable wind energy.
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Fried Birds: Green Energy Involves Tradeoffs Too
- February 17, 2014
The Ivanpah solar plant went online last week, but the cost to wildlife–particularly birds–won’t be known for at least two more years. Reports that the giant solar thermal array featuring more than 300,000 reflective panels and steam-driven turbine towers have been “killing and singeing” birds by heating the air to around 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit near
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CO electric rates rise along with increase in preferred energy mandate
- February 7, 2014
In 1999 Colorado enjoyed some of the lowest electricity rates in the United States and the Mountain West. In 2004, Colorado voters approved Amendment 37, requiring investor owned utilities to provide 10 percent of the electricity sold to end users to come from the preferred sources wind and solar. Since 2004, the Colorado state legislature
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HB 1113 Testimony, Bill Voted Down 8-5
- January 31, 2014
Valerie Richardson of The Colorado Observer provides background on HB 1113’s 8-5 defeat in committee, as well as other efforts to deal with last year’s SB 252 impact on rural Colorado. Full text of testimony presented by the Independence Institute: Testimony on behalf of HB 1113 Electric Renewable Energy Standard Reduction, Room 0112 January 30,
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Legislative Preview: 2014 Energy Bills
- January 24, 2014
Current through January 24, 2014 Reform defeated: SB14-035 Renewable Energy Standard Repeal *postponed indefinitely* Senate Bill 35, introduced by State Sen. Ted Harvey, would have repealed “substantially all of the provision enacted by Senate Bill 13-252” by returning the renewable portfolio standard to 10 percent from 20 percent for rural cooperative electric associations, among other
READ MORE

Contact

Jake Fogleman
Policy Analyst, Energy & Environmental Policy Center
Email: Jake@i2i.org

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Hydraulic Fracturing

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Renewable Energy