Colorado Supreme Court rules against TABOR—Again!
If you read enough Colorado Supreme Court TABOR opinions, you notice . . . motifs: (1) taxpayers always lose, (2) the court’s opinions are often evasive . . . , and (3) after creating an anti-TABOR precedent, the justices then stretch it to create even more anti-TABOR precedents.
Colorado Supreme Court issues 2nd anti-TABOR decision in less than a month—showing why we need reform!
The Colorado Supreme Court has continued its demolition campaign against the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) with a new decision further restricting the people’s right to vote on tax increases. This latest decision comes less than a month after the court held the people have no right to vote on a law that re-adjusted sales […]
Blaine’s Shadow: Politics, Discrimination, and School Choice
More than three dozen states have some type of Blaine clause in their state constitutions. These problematic clauses prohibit government aid to “sectarian” institutions. Though this language has been euphemized to stand for the “separation of church and state,” such an outlook misinterprets the religious protections outlined in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution […]
2017 Colorado Energy Outlook
In the wake of one of the most surprising electoral outcomes in recent memory, we here at the Independence Institute have been assessing what the next few months, the 2017 Colorado legislative session, and the general future of energy policy in Colorado will look like under a President-elect Trump administration and a split legislature with […]
Masters v. School District Number 1
The Independence Institute has long been a champion of tenure reform, local control, and flexibility in the realm of school and district personnel decisions. In 2010, the Institute was part of a broad, bipartisan coalition supporting Senate Bill 191, Colorado’s teacher evaluation and tenure reform bill. It continues to defend SB 191’s critical reforms from both […]
May 2 Colorado Energy Cheat Sheet: Supreme Court rules on fracking bans; ALA report on ozone misleading; some officials want all the regulations
Craig Power Station in Craig, Colorado The Colorado Supreme Court’s long-awaited ruling on local fracking bans and moratoria has upheld long standing precedent: The Colorado Supreme Court today upheld decades of state law that places authority over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, squarely in the hands of state officials. The court ruled in a pair of […]
Energy Policy Center Report: Electricity rates skyrocket across all Colorado sectors
Across all sectors of Colorado the cost of electricity has skyrocketed more than 67 percent between 2001 and 2014, easily exceeding median income growth and the expected rate of inflation for the same period, an extended analysis of government energy records by the Independence Institute has revealed. For all sectors between 2001 and 2014, the cost […]
February 11 Colorado Energy Cheat Sheet: SCOTUS stay on Clean Power Plan edition
Join us Tuesday, February 16 at noon as the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Independence Institute discuss the latest on the EPA’s Clean Power Plan/111d rule, including the SCOTUS stay issued this week. Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment, and Raymond Gifford, a partner at the law firm Wilkinson, Barker, Knauer, LLP and a […]
Begging for Tire Scraps: SCOTUS Takes MO Blaine Case
Yesterday, we talked Dougco. Because I’m a fan of loosely connected thematic writing, we’re going to do the same today in a more peripheral sense. Don’t worry, today’s post will include markedly less discussion about the nether regions of the male body. Some of you may remember that there was a pretty important—and pretty disappointing—Colorado […]
December 10 Colorado Energy Cheat Sheet: Fracking ban faces CO Supremes; fracktivist compares technology to slavery; House GOP calls Interior EPA spill report a “whitewash”
Yesterday, the Colorado Supreme Court heard arguments over Longmont’s fracking ban: On Wednesday, the state’s highest court will consider Longmont’s voter-approved ban on hydraulic fracturing within city limits. Longmont voters added the ban to the drilling method, also called fracking, to the City Charter in 2012, convinced that a city-negotiated set of regulations on oil […]
December 10 Colorado Energy Cheat Sheet: Fracking ban faces CO Supremes; fracktivist compares technology to slavery; House GOP calls Interior EPA spill report a "whitewash"
Yesterday, the Colorado Supreme Court heard arguments over Longmont’s fracking ban: On Wednesday, the state’s highest court will consider Longmont’s voter-approved ban on hydraulic fracturing within city limits. Longmont voters added the ban to the drilling method, also called fracking, to the City Charter in 2012, convinced that a city-negotiated set of regulations on oil […]
November 12 Colorado Energy Cheat Sheet: Colorado hit hard by CPP; Bennet defends pro-Keystone stance; CSU report rejects “sky-is-falling” contamination claims
Colorado would be the 18th hardest hit state, and fourth most expensive for the cost of carbon reduction under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, according to a new report from Fitch Ratings: Wide-ranging voices—in politics; in business; consumer advocates like our coalition—have been warning of the potentially crippling costs of the U.S. Environmental […]
