public lands Archives

Bears Ears prompts Bennet to challenge USDA on protecting monument’s forests

Jun 16, 2017

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Colorado’s Sen. Michael Bennet wants to know if the U.S. Forest Service is asleep at the switch as the Trump administration aims to trim Bears Ears National Monument. Bennet and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from Michigan, sent a letter Thursday to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, who oversees the Forest Service, asking pointed questions about…

Kerry Donovan cheers establishment of Public Lands Day as permanent state holiday

May 4, 2017

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Ernest Luning

Gov. John Hickenlooper on Wednesday signed a proclamation recognizing Public Lands Day and establishing a permanent state holiday every third Saturday in May. State Sen. Kerry Donovan, a Vail Democrat, sponsored the legislation last year to create the holiday and was on hand for the governor’s official action. “To celebrate our public lands is to…

Public lands planning is critical to generations in Colorado, says Greeley Spanish music broadcaster

May 4, 2017

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Joey Bunch

A Spanish music broadcaster in Greeley says a Bureau of Land Management plan in the works could deeply affect future Coloradans who use public lands. The Eastern Colorado Resource Management Plan could affect generations of residents and tourists who love the outdoors, contends William Neidig, owner and president of La Familia Broadcasting in Greeley. He penned an op-ed for…

Hickenlooper says it’s ‘unlikely’ Colorado national monuments will face Trump-ordered review

Apr 27, 2017

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Ernest Luning

Gov. John Hickenlooper said late Thursday that he’s confident that Colorado’s national monuments won’t be threatened as a result of an executive order signed this week by President Trump instructing his interior secretary to conduct a review. Hickenlooper said he discussed the executive order Wednesday in Washington, D.C., with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and two…

Dempsey: Colorado coal communities saved from costly power plan

Apr 3, 2017

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Stan Dempsey

Many Americans have already forgotten about the Clean Power Plan (CPP), the Obama administration’s signature effort to reduce carbon emissions from the nation’s power plants – but not the nation’s coal communities. They’ve lived with this regulation as an ever-present threat even after its implementation was stayed by a federal court. Colorado’s coal communities saw…

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…

WOTUS order could take years to resolve

Mar 14, 2017

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Mike McKibbin

A controversial federal rule designed to provide clarity for protection of America’s water resources, and now under a presidential order for change or elimination, could cause further confusion and take the rest of President Donald Trump’s term in office to be resolved, according to two Colorado State University researchers and news reports. The order was…

Jones slams confirmation of Pruitt, says Colorado must go own way on environment

Feb 18, 2017

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Ernest Luning

Calling former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt “the wrong choice for EPA administrator,” a Democratic state senator said Friday that Colorado will have to chart its own environmental course and reject the direction it looks like Washington is taking. “Scott Pruitt’s history of climate change denial, opposing environmental protection and his uncomfortably close ties with the…

Trade show fight with Colorado has Utah on its back

Feb 17, 2017

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JOEY BUNCH

The fight over a Salt Lake City outdoor retail equipment trade show that Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper inadvertently picked hit a new threshold Thursday evening. The parent company of the Outdoor Retailer show said it’s leaving Utah over some politicians’ determination to make more federal public lands open to energy development, grazing and local management.…