SCOTUS Curbs EPA: The Sackett Case
Justice Alito’s majority opinion held that the phrase “waters of the United States” means only defined bodies of water—such as lakes and streams—and those wetlands that so border them that their waters’ surface merges with the surface of the lake or stream.
Don’t Get Used to the Recent Drop in Gas Prices
Despite Governor Polis’s last minute hand-wringing, the EPA has announced that expensive new gasoline requirements will absolutely be coming to the Denver Metro area. According to the Colorado Sun: The Environmental Protection Agency can’t let Colorado off the hook for imposing more expensive reformulated gas to fight ozone pollution beginning in 2024, the agency said in […]
Polis Announces Push Back Against Looming EPA Mandates
In a rare break from his usual routine, Governor Jared Polis (D.) appears to be fighting back against unwelcome and costly environmental regulations for once. Per the Denver Gazette: In a reversal of his approach to federal ozone determinations three years ago, Gov. Jared Polis is poised to ask the Environmental Protection Agency to not rush […]
Slaying a dragon: Pruitt strikes down the CPP
President Obama and the eco-left’s draconian federal scheme to regulate carbon emissions comes to an end, but Colorado still faces a similar dragon closer to home. I don’t think I’ve ever written this, but thank goodness for the EPA! Well, actually, thank goodness for Administrator Pruitt’s announcement that he will “formally sign a proposal to […]
EPA social media machine put on hold
This is the first presidential transition of complete social media saturation, and it should come as no surprise that the Trump Administration wants control of social media accounts from activist agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) where some staffers have threatened to undermine the new administration. According to an online media report, the […]
EPA employees plan resistance to Trump agency reform efforts
Back in November, the Independence Institute previewed what opposition the incoming Trump administration would likely face if campaign pledges to reform and reduce the size and scope of federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Administration, concluding that in many cases, personnel is policy. Newly leaked reports and sources within the agency hint that the personnel […]
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 […]
The ‘War On Coal’ threatens a sleepy Colorado mining town
(Craig Station, Moffat County, Colorado. Photo: Michael Sandoval) CRAIG, Colo. — Coal, from extraction to use as a generation source, forms the literal bedrock of Craig. (Welcome to Craig. Photo: Michael Sandoval) The past few years have shaken the once quiet town, as an onslaught of federal government regulations and actions by environmental activists bent […]
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 […]
March 3 Colorado Energy Cheat Sheet: EPA’s McCarthy ‘good news about Gold King’; a Tesla will improve your ‘quality of life’
March 3 Colorado Energy Cheat Sheet
Huisman: CDPHE plows ahead; implementation model ignores cost of Clean Power Plan
On Monday February 22nd, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s (CDPHE) Air Pollution Control Division (APCD) held a public meeting to discuss the status of President Obama’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), which the U.S. Supreme Court officially stayed on February 9th. The agenda for this previously scheduled meeting was modified in order to […]
February 23 Colorado Energy Cheat Sheet: Conflicting views over Colorado CPP prep; Gold King Mine persists for Navajo Nation
An E&E story ‘Colo. steps back from crafting formal plan for EPA rule’ might give readers pause, thinking that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment was backing off its previous statement to proceed with “prudent” Clean Power Plan development even as a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court was in effect (paywall): Colorado […]
