Let’s cool down the heated energy debate

For years now there has been a heated debate on energy in Colorado, with one side stating we need to rid our state of fossil fuels and the other stating we need to rid our state of renewable energy. Neither side has been willing to give an inch.

The folks wanting to rid our state of the evil renewable sources of energy and their policies state that it is costing jobs in coal, gas and oil. The other side? Well, they will give you numbers on how fossil fuels will kill our planet (or already have), are dangerous all the way around, and are dinosaurs (no pun intended) in the world of energy.

So here are some actual facts about energy in general, for both sides. Colorado’s coal industry has lost less than 1,000 jobs over the last eight years statewide. I am not minimizing that number. Our governor is blamed in part for the loss of those jobs, and with our present administration cutting back on regulations, most people feel that Gov. Hickenlooper is the man to blame. It wasn’t until 2015 when Gov. Hickenlooper assigned a task force to study how to most reasonably and effectively balance land use issues in a way that minimizes conflicts while protecting communities and allowing reasonable access to private mineral rights. With that in mind, it would have been hard for his policies to have been a major reason for job losses in the state when the state began to lose our coal jobs.

In Colorado, since the passage of Amendment 37 in 2004, renewable energy has increased from 2 percent to almost 22 percent of total electricity generated. At first glance, that doesn’t look overly impressive in a 13-year span, but when the field went from almost nothing and was fought every step of the way, it looks a little more impressive.

Has fossil fuel been hit hard? Has it lost ground? I’m not sure. Here is Colorado’s current energy use by source: Coal, 54.7 percent; natural gas, 23.3 percent; wind, 17.28 percent; hydropower, 3.52 percent; solar 1 percent.

The bottom line is that neither of these needs to be taken away from the economy. Our economy will collapse without both.

Scott HaysOn the web

Trump trampling the media? A former prez says otherwise

It was Hal Bidlack’s bad luck that last week’s column appeared just in time for Jimmy Carter to contradict it (“The brilliance of Donald Trump,” Oct. 18). A few days after Bidlack wrote that President Trump has “dominated, twisted, and cowed the media into little more than a cheering squad for his actions,” President Carter said, “I think the media have been harder on Trump than any other president certainly that I’ve known about. I think they feel free to claim that Trump is mentally deranged and everything else without hesitation.”

Bidlack cited a study that compares the number of sentences published during the 2016 campaign about Donald Trump’s and Hillary Clinton’s respective scandals. It concludes that, as Clinton’s scandal drew more sentences, media favored Trump.

Different criteria would yield a different conclusion. Which candidate did more sentences portray as dangerously unhinged, narcissistic, destined to lose or, in President Carter’s phrase, “mentally deranged and everything else”?

Such a study would reflect what America already knows to be true. In their treatment of President Trump, today’s media, what Steve Bannon called “the opposition party,” are actually more ferocious than congressional Democrats.

Dan ColeColorado Springs

Colorado’s foster kids tied up in red tape

State human services officials say they need over 1,200 more foster families to meet the needs of Colorado’s most vulnerable children. Fostering a child is a noble endeavor and there is no denying the dire need for more families to step up to the challenge.

But before a prospective foster placement can take in a child, they face a byzantine, time consuming and discouraging gauntlet of classes (CPR, disaster preparedness, child development theory), red tape (interviews with friends and family, repeated home visits and psychological evaluations) and invasive questionnaires that make tax returns look innocent.

It’s as if government is compensating for the childbirth licensing they would desire but – alas – could never implement. A great first step to finding those 1,200 loving homes for Colorado’s kids would be to streamline the process to look more like an act of love than a visit to the DMV.

Brad JonesDenver

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