Author: John Tomasic
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Colorado Open Records Act digital update bounds over last legislative hurdles
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The Colorado Open Records Act this year will receive a long-overdue digital-era update after Senate Bill 40 on Wednesday ended its switchback journey over the entire course of the 120-day legislative session Wednesday, finishing in the Senate with an against-all-odds unanimous vote of support. “No one would have guessed it would receive all 35 votes…
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On the 2017 legislative session, transportation lobbyist sees hope in the wreckage
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Sandra Hagen Solin, spokesperson for the Fix Colorado Roads economic-development coalition, worked the legislative trenches all year to bring Capitol leaders to a place where they could make a deal to pass a major transportation funding proposal. After months of back and forth, leadership this session brought out House Bill 1242, which failed spectacularly. Critics…
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Lawmakers: Let Colorado Vote celebration more about spin than a win
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Let Colorado Vote, the group advocating for open primary elections in the state, celebrated legislative leadership on Monday tied to Senate Bill 305 in a way that lawmakers involved with the bill suggested was little tied to experience on the ground at the Capitol. “The thousands of grassroots activists who helped enact the open primary…
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Firestone tragedy unlikely to shake up Capitol oil and gas politics
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A lot has changed in the wake of the oil and gas industry-linked explosion at the end of April in Firestone that killed two. Anadarko Petroleum shut down 3,000 wells. Matt Lepore, Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission director, spoke about conducting “an ongoing conversation about new safety measures” of one kind or another. Gov.…
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Colorado open primary bill advances over bumpy terrain as negative ad hits airwaves
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Debate inside and outside the Legislature around how to best implement the state’s new voter-approved open primary elections has grown hotter by the hour as the legislative session barrels toward closing day. On Monday, the Senate advanced Senate Bill 305 to the House. The bill is meant to guide the secretary of state’s office in…
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Firestone Rep. Saine: A full-throated opponent of oil and gas flowline bill
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State Rep. Lori Saine, a Republican who represents constituents rocked by a recent fatal oil and gas industry-related home explosion in Firestone, strongly opposes a bill introduced Friday morning that would require the drilling industry to make available well flowline mapping data to regulators and the public. “This tragedy is very fresh in my mind.…
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Gas patch lawmakers bring late bill to map oil and gas well flowlines in wake of Firestone tragedy
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Gas patch lawmakers racing against the legislative clock on Friday introduced a bill that would grant state oil and gas regulators the power to map well flowlines and it would require drilling companies to share flowline maps with the state, cities and counties where drilling occurs and make the maps available to the public. House…
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House Majority Leader on crucial Hospital Fee bill negotiations: ‘We’re so, so super close’
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Weeks of tense negotiations and occasional lawmaker blowups are coming to an end, one way or another, over a linchpin bill that in its last iteration would raise $1.8 billion in bond money for state transportation upgrades, save state hospitals from a proposed $500 million cut and lower the state spending limit in future years…
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Top Colorado regulator uncertain ‘what happens next’ after fatal Firestone explosion linked to oil and gas operations
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Matt Lepore, director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, told reporters Tuesday afternoon that it was a “confluence of events” tied to an uncapped line leading to a gas well that led to the fatal home explosion in Firestone April 17. He said that state well inspections and regulations would not necessarily prevent…
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Colorado to outlaw ‘rolling coal’ nuisance exhaust
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It took two tries this legislative session, but Colorado lawmakers on Tuesday voted to ban “rolling coal,” the practice of modifying a diesel car or truck engine to spew unfiltered exhaust. Senate Bill 278, sponsored in the House by Fort Collins Democrat JoAnn Ginal and in the Senate by Durango Republican Don Coram, passed a…