energy policy

Pyle: Is Colorado’s oil and gas industry sitting at the table, or on the menu?

Mar 17, 2017

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Tom Pyle

There’s an old and unfortunate truth about Washington, D.C.: “If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re probably on the menu.” For the past eight years, the Obama administration’s “keep-it-in-the-ground” policies have kept the oil and gas industry “on the menu” and stymied responsible energy development and threatened to make energy more expensive…
Methane rule issue shows divide in opinion polls

Mar 15, 2017

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Mike McKibbin

Oil and natural gas companies and their supporters continue to wage a war of words – and opinion polls – with backers of a Bureau of Land Management rule regulating emissions of methane from natural gas wells drilled on federal land, while a Colorado senator remains undecided on his stance on the rule. Earlier this…
Letter: Colorado Springs must fight for cleaner energy

Mar 8, 2017

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Colorado Politics

Editor: An article published February 26 indicated that the city of Pueblo has committed itself to using only clean energy by 2035, just as Aspen achieved in 2015. This is an admirable effort, which the city of Colorado Springs should look to emulate in order to contribute to a more sustainable future. In 2014, the Colorado…
New study indicates low health risks found in oil-gas air pollution

Mar 2, 2017

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Dan Elliott

Colorado officials who reviewed thousands of air samples and a dozen studies on air pollution from oil and gas sites said Wednesday the risk of harmful human effects appears to be low, but they stressed that more study is needed. “The main message (is not) that we didn’t find anything,” said Mike Van Dyke of…
O’Toole: Transit doesn’t need state taxpayer funding

Feb 26, 2017

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R

According to a misleading new report, Colorado ranks 29th in per capita funding for transit, spending just one-twentieth of the national average. Thus, there is a “funding gap” for public transit. But Colorado apparently ranks 29th only in state transit funding. What’s left out is that most transit funding comes from the regional level. The…
Rescinding BLM gas waste reduction rule before Senate

Feb 20, 2017

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Mike McKibbin

One of Colorado’s U.S. Senators is strongly opposed to a measure that would roll back an Obama administration rule to prevent the flaring and wasting of methane and natural gas developed on public and tribal lands, while the second is undecided. The rule was among several environmental regulations issued in the last days of the…
Strange bedfellows battery bill puts Xcel on notice

Feb 17, 2017

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John Tomasic

The state Senate business committee last week voted to kill Sen. Steve Fenberg’s home energy storage bill, but not until after a series of witnesses that included rate-payers, energy-industry entrepreneurs, government engineers, lawyers, environmentalists and a libertarian free-market think tank firebrand testified in support of the bill and fielded questions over the course of hours…
Fossil fuel divestment movement looks to DU after hitting dry spell in Colorado

Jan 15, 2017

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Valerie Richardson

The fossil fuel divestment movement may be losing steam in Colorado, but activists are hoping to reverse the slide by convincing the University of Denver to sell off its investments in coal, oil and natural gas. The University of Denver Board of Trustees is scheduled to consider at its Jan. 20 meeting a report from…
Colorado attorney general supports Bureau of Land Management leases

Jan 11, 2017

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Tom Ramstack

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman is throwing her support behind the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as it defends itself in court against environmentalists opposed to oil and gas development projects. The environmentalists are pursuing a federal lawsuit to halt Bureau of Land Management oil and gas leases in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. The oil…
Obama administration considers mining limits in West to save sage grouse in ’11th-hour attack’

Dec 30, 2016

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Dan Elliott

The Obama administration offered five possible plans Thursday for limiting mining on federal land in the West to protect the vulnerable greater sage grouse, but it isn’t saying which it prefers. The options range from banning new mining activity on about 15,000 square miles for up to 20 years to imposing no additional restrictions on…