Independence Institute at the "Stop the EPA Power Grab" Rally
More than 400 people turned out last week for the “Stop the EPA Power Grab” rally for affordable energy just across Lincoln Avenue from the west steps of the Capitol. Coal miners, their families, representatives of more than 20 allied mining and natural resource groups, union members, business leaders, and affordable energy activists from Colorado […]
Emails Show EPA’s Denver “Listening Tour” Stop A Collaboration Between Agency, Environmentalist Orgs
Emails published this week by the Washington Free Beacon’s Lachlan Markay illustrate a pattern of coordination and cooperation between the Environmental Protection Agency and external environmentalist groups, including the use of at least one agency event to “pressure” an Xcel Energy executive at the Denver stop of a 2013 “listening tour”: The emails, obtained by […]
Emails Show EPA's Denver "Listening Tour" Stop A Collaboration Between Agency, Environmentalist Orgs
Emails published this week by the Washington Free Beacon’s Lachlan Markay illustrate a pattern of coordination and cooperation between the Environmental Protection Agency and external environmentalist groups, including the use of at least one agency event to “pressure” an Xcel Energy executive at the Denver stop of a 2013 “listening tour”: The emails, obtained by […]
Oregon’s Cannibalism of Environmentalism
By Brandon Ratterman Almost 60 percent of Oregon’s electricity is generated from hydroelectric power, which is considered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a renewable energy resource. However, the state is struggling to meet the mandated renewable portfolio standard (RPS) of 15 percent renewable generation by 2015, as hydroelectricity generated at facilities built before […]
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 […]
What being "green" says about you!
This may be the best column that Michael Sandoval and I have ever written. First, we use the Environmental Protection Agency’s own report to expose how “green” technology actually is polluting, not saving, the planet. Second, what does the need to be “green” say about those who advance an energy policy that makes no sense […]
The EPA press release we didn't read
No one read a press release from the Environmental Protection Agency stating that drinking water in Dimock, Pennsylvania is safe to drink and not contaminated by hydraulic fracturing because the EPA didn’t issue one. Instead it sent an email to Dimock residents. -Original Message—– From: Taylor.Trish <Taylor.Trish@epamail.epa.gov> To: Cc: Polish.David <Polish.David@epamail.epa.gov> Sent: Fri, Dec 2, […]
Media acts like eco Chicken Littles
Has any media outlet bothered to ask if the EPA’s theory on groundwater contamination in Wyoming and hydraulic fracturing is even right? The Independence Institute’s Energy Policy Blog can’t be accused (at least not accurately) of being in the tank for the oil and gas industry. We’ve been on opposite sides of several of the […]
Dispelling the Myth of "Clean" Green Energy
By Michael Sandoval Clean Water Action’s Gary Wockner plays the card in his Denver Post guest editorial that is usually intended to end any debate between advocates of renewable energy technology and those in favor of continuing the exploration of fossil fuel resources–“What are the environmental impacts?” Typically, readers are treated to some sort of […]
Wyoming Governor reacts to EPA "draft finding" on fracturing
While the rest of the world loses its collective mind over an Environmental Protection Agency “draft finding” that hydraulic fracturing may be the cause of groundwater contamination in Pavillion, Wyoming, Governor Matt Mead is a voice of reason. In a press release from his office, Mead stated, “the Environmental Protection Agency’s draft study on Pavillion […]
Primer: HB 1291, an Illegal Rip-off
What is HB 1291? On Monday, by a 58-7 vote, the Colorado House of Representatives passed HB 1291, legislation that approves the Air Quality Control Commission’s Regional Haze State Implementation Plan. HB 1291 comes before the Senate State Affairs Committee next Tuesday, April 19. What is a Regional Haze State Implementation Plan? In the 1977 […]
Will Lawmakers Stop the AQCC’s (almost certainly) Illegal Regional Haze Plan?
I’ve written before about the Air Quality Control Commission’s outrageous Regional Haze Implementation Plan. In particular, I objected to the plan’s treatment of two small coal fired power plants near Steamboat Springs, Hayden 1 and Hayden 2, because it mandates controls that are at least $100 million more expensive than what is required by the […]
