“I would like to congratulate Jean on her appointment to the 8th Senate District of Colorado,” Kopp said. “The Senate Republicans look forward to working with her on the issues of streamlining burdensome regulations and getting government out of the way so employers can begin getting people back to work.”
Jean and Al White owned and operated several ski shops, a bike shop, and a mountain lodge in the Winter Park area before moving to Hayden.

But Kopp blasted the selection by Hickenlooper Monday of Ellen Golumbek to head the Department of Labor and Employment. Golumbek currently is the Colorado director of America Votes and before that was the first woman president of the Colorado AFL-CIO.

“Governor-elect Hickenlooper’s appointment to the Department of Labor may certainly take some of the air out of the bipartisan atmosphere he has promised to promote as governor,” Kopp said. “His selection of a noted progressive activist and union boss in Ms. Golombek certainly will raise plenty of eyebrows in Colorado’s business community. And for good reason.”

Kopp said Hickenlooper at a recent Colorado Press Association event said he would foster a pro-business political climate: “This appointment seems to be a complete reversal of that policy.”

“Nonetheless,” Kopp said, “Ms. Golombek will go through a Senate confirmation process. Senators have the constitutional obligation to put to her the same critical questions that every Colorado employer will be asking: Will she promote policies that make it more costly or less costly for businesses to operate in Colorado? Will she be on the side of the bureaucracy or the taxpayer?”

In a release announcing her appointment, Hickenlooper said, “Ellen is a proven strategic thinker who has a collaborative work style and extensive experience working with the labor and business communities.”

Also in the running, according to the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, is Glenwood Springs businesswoman Shannon Stowe, the vice chairwoman of the Garfield County Republican Party and the wife of former county commissioner Walt Stowe.

White, in the middle of his first term in the state Senate but before that a member of the state House for eight years, is stepping down in the coming weeks to head up the Colorado Tourism Office for the administration of governor-elect John Hickenlooper. White’s wife, Jean, serves on the GOP vacancy committee and will have to recuse herself today because she’s a nominee.

Also in the running, according to the Post-Independent, are former 3rd Congressional District candidate and retired Col. Bob McConnell of Steamboat Springs and Jeff Frye of Hayden. A member of the vacancy committee told the paper more candidates may still come forward today. The Denver Post reports Kay Mayring of Walden is also in the hunt.

White is considered a moderate who tried hard to juggle the increasingly divergent interests of the sprawling Senate District 8, which includes Eagle, Garfield, Routt, Jackson, Moffat and Rio Blanco counties in sparsely populated Northwest Colorado.

A longtime ski shop owner in Winter Park, White says tourism is key to Colorado’s economic recovery, but he also strongly backed more intensive industrial uses for the state’s vast tracts of public lands, including heavily supporting the coal mining and natural gas industries on the Western Slope.

Some ski industry and outdoor recreational interests have grown more vocal in recent years about stepped-up extractive industries in areas that could see tourism impacted as a result. White’s successor will have to deal with many of those same conflicting issues.

White, from Winter Park, served eight years in the Colorado House of Representatives before he was elected to the Colorado Senate two years ago.

“Tourism can be a catalyst for economic development throughout Colorado,” White said in a press release.

He told The Colorado Independent by phone today that he hopes to convince the legislature to provide more funding for the tourism office.

“My first and most important job will be to find a stable funding source for the office so that we can begin to gain ground again,” he said.

He said that since the state stopped using a portion of sales taxes collected to fund tourism promotion, there has been no reliable source of funding for the office.

“Studies have shown that for every dollar a state spends promoting tourism, the state gets $6 back. If you truly understand that, it is silly not to fund tourism promotion. By diverting some money to the tourism office the state can actually grow the general fund,” White said.

Henneberry is now executive director of the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing and is responsible for managing public health insurance programs including Medicaid and CHP+. She will stay in her current role until a replacement is named, the press release said.

“Colorado is well positioned to implement federal health care reform that meets the needs of families throughout the state,” Henneberry said in a prepared statement. “We are committed to working with consumers and businesses to effectively and efficiently provide health care services that are both affordable and accountable.”

In her new role, Hickenlooper’s office said Henneberry will be responsible for continuing the planning phase for a health insurance exchange in Colorado as called for in the Affordable Care Act. This will involve setting up work groups and committees; working with the health reform director and implementation board; working to assess through economic modeling and analysis if Colorado can sustain a state exchange; and continuing to engage stakeholders, especially consumers and small businesses, to ensure that the Colorado exchange enables them to purchase affordable health insurance.

Some of these individuals and families will be eligible for federal subsidies to help them pay their insurance premiums.

Henneberry joined Gov. Bill Ritter’s cabinet as executive director of the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing in 2007. She previously worked in the private sector after spending seven years at the National Governors Association, providing consultation to states on health care services and financing, cost containment and emerging policy issues. She spent 13 years at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, chairs the board of the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization, and serves on the Executive Committee for the National Academy for State Health Policy.

Henneberry earned a master’s degree in management and completed the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government in 2008.

White was first elected in 2000 as state representative for House District 57, representing Garfield, Grand, Jackson, Moffat, Rio Blanco and Routt counties. He served four terms and during his tenure served as assistant majority leader and vice chair of the Business Affairs and Labor Committee. He was a member of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, the Education Committee, the Water Resources Review Committee and the Legislative Audit Committee. White was the House appointee to the Colorado Tourism Office board for 10 years and was instrumental in securing funding for tourism promotion in Colorado.

White was elected to the Colorado Senate in 2008, representing District 8 (Eagle, Garfield, Jackson, Moffat, Rio Blanco and Routt counties). He currently serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee and he served on the Joint Budget Committee for four years.

White served in the Army before relocating to Colorado 35 years ago. He later moved to Winter Park and began a career as an entrepreneur in the ski business. He and his wife, Jean, spent 25 years as owners and operators of several ski shops, a bike shop and a mountain lodge.

White has served on several bank boards, was the chairman of the Fraser Valley Metropolitan Recreation District, secretary of the Grand County Water and Sanitation board, and vice chair of the Winter Park Fraser Valley Chamber of Commerce.

White will resign his Senate seat in the coming weeks; a date has not been set. A vacancy committee will name his replacement.

The Colorado Tourism Office was created by the legislature in 2000 to promote Colorado as a tourism and travel destination. The CTO replaced the Colorado Tourism Board and the Colorado Travel and Tourism Authority. The office is governed by a board of directors consisting of 15 members, including four legislators and 11 members appointed by the Governor and representing various tourism and travel industry segments. Administrative oversight is provided by the Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

Hurlbert, a Republican who had a rough summer of his own politically – unsuccessfully seeking a state Senate seat – is famous for failing to make a sexual assault case against NBA superstar Kobe Bryant stick in 2003. Praised in some circles for at least trying (what would Ken Buck have done?), Hurlbert saw the alleged victim drop the criminal case after relentless media and public harassment.

Critics claim Hurlbert and Eagle County Sheriff Joe Hoy, whose own election is still up in the air a week after last week’s midterms, were outgunned by Bryant’s big-name attorneys, one of whom was Harold Haddon.

Steven Milo, the New York doctor allegedly hit by financial manager Martin Erzinger while cycling in Edwards, retained Haddon, who owns a home in Aspen and used to pal around with the late Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. There seems to be a question of whether this is some sort of grudge match between Haddon and Hurlbert.

The DA is sticking by his decision to only file two misdemeanor charges in the case, noting that Erzinger was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs and that by avoiding a felony charge he would better be able to work and make financial restitution to the badly injured Milo. Erzinger claims he did not know he hit anyone and that’s why he kept driving to Avon.

“You see victims retain attorneys more and more,” Hurlbert told the Vail Daily Monday. “Some could be contemplating possible civil action. Others are working to protect the victim’s rights.”

The paper reports “Hurlbert has received over 1,000 e-mails since news broke last week” and that there’s “an online petition with more than 6,000 signatures being circulated to tell Hurlbert to keep the felony charge against Erzinger, and the case is receiving national media attention from shows like CBS’s ‘Inside Edition.’”

Hurlbert, who was blindsided by Tea Party candidate Tim Leonard (who’s still technically alive in the state Senate District 16 race) at last summer’s Republican caucus, was considered a highly electable moderate. Eventual American Constitution Party candidate Tom Tancredo backed Leonard, who was a founder of that party in Colorado, while state Senate District 8 Republican Sen. Al White (Vail’s state senator) backed Hurlbert.

One of the state's worst bridges is this section of Interstate 70 in Denver. (Photo by Joseph Boven)

CDOT officials say they need another $500 million a year just to get to an acceptable level of road and bridge repairs and maintenance statewide, and an unpopular vehicle registration fee hike passed in 2009 – the Funding Advancements for Surface Transportation and Economic Recovery (FASTER) bill – hasn’t even made a dent.

“In this economy, raising taxes to pay for highways would be a nonstarter,” said state Sen. Al White, R-Hayden. “I don’t think the citizens would go for that and that’s why I don’t think you’ve heard any politicians talk about transportation, because they don’t have any solutions. So if you don’t have a solution, better to just not bring it up.”

White, who isn’t up for reelection in November, said FASTER (a Tea Party target viewed by many as backdoor tax by the legislature) was supposed to bring in an additional $250 million a year. But collections have been lagging because of the recession, with fewer people registering new cars and trucks.

“The FASTER dollars that we passed were supposed to be only half of what we minimally needed,” White said. “CDOT said we need a half a billion minimally to maintain a grade C level maintenance on our highways, and that it was closer to a billion to do it in a way that we could be proud of, and I don’t see those dollars coming from anywhere.”

State Rep. Christine Scanlan, D-Dillon, who is running for reelection and whose district is bisected by one of the state’s worst choke points – Interstate 70 – said it will be up to the next governor to make transportation a priority.

“FASTER is a Band-aid under any circumstances; it wasn’t a fix,” Scanlan said. “Whoever is governor is going to have to confront how do you rank transportation versus education, versus health care, versus some of the other general fund tensions. The legislature can only do so much without the governor saying, ‘This is a priority.’”

Scanlan said it will then take a bipartisan effort in the legislature to come up with a package of funding options that will be palatable to Colorado voters. A number of controversial solutions have been floated – from increased tolling to charging motorists by the Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) to raising the state gas tax – but none are likely to be popular.

“Or if it’s something different, because I actually don’t think Vehicle Miles Traveled has a chance,” Scanlan said. “The gas tax, those are declining revenues with more fuel-efficient vehicles, so maybe there’s [another] solution we haven’t figured out yet.”

So far the most substantive transportation discussion in the governor’s race — which pits Democratic Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper against GOP nominee and Tea Party favorite Dan Maes and third-party candidate Tom Tancredo – has centered on improving skier traffic between Denver and the mountain resorts along I-70.

Hickenlooper suggested semi-trailer traffic should be curtailed during peak skier periods such as Friday afternoon, Saturday morning (westbound) and Sunday afternoon (eastbound). That idea is unpopular with the trucking lobby but attractive to the ski industry.

Another idea being studied by CDOT is installing “zipper lanes,” or temporary lane dividers, that would increase the number of eastbound lanes to three on Sunday afternoons while restricting westbound traffic to one lane. Estimated to cost between $30 million and $35 million, zipper lanes would cut travel time eastbound between Silver Plume and El Rancho in half, while doubling the travel time westbound.

Predictably, zipper lanes are favored by the ski industry but viewed with some concern by the trucking lobby.

“There’s no silver bullet solution for I-70,” said Melanie Mills, president and CEO of state ski industry lobby Colorado Ski Country USA. “We think the zipper lanes are a promising near-term measure that will improve the eastbound user experience significantly on Sundays. We support implementing the zipper lane assuming important issues such as snow removal and emergency services can be addressed.”

Greg Fulton of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association trucking lobby says his members aren’t totally adverse to the idea but need to know more.

“We’re waiting like everyone else to see some of the results [of more CDOT study] and how it would work,” Fulton said. “On our end, we’re having vehicles in both directions. The only thing we get concerned with is that we don’t adversely affect that other direction, and that’s going to be part of that study.”

Besides improving the flow of traffic – CDOT has spent about $30 million over the last decade studying the environmental impacts of upgrading I-70 – there is the arguably more immediate issue of road and bridge repairs along the corridor.

One of the state's 128 structurally deficient bridges. (Photo by Joseph Boven)

Between Glenwood Springs and the Front Range foothills there are eight structurally deficient bridges along I-70 that are rated in poor condition – four in Clear Creek County, three in Eagle County and one in Garfield County – and none are currently being repaired.

Of the 128 “poor” bridges statewide, only nine are currently under construction using FASTER dollars, although another dozen or so are being repaired using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus) funds.

“The reason we didn’t do more is that there was a requirement for stimulus dollars to be spent quickly on shovel ready projects, so there are many resurfacing projects as well,” said CDOT spokeswoman Stacey Stegman. “It’s easier to design a resurfacing project than a bridge project, so we had more of those.

“We are still on the tail end of the stimulus — as those funds are on a reimbursement basis — so we have about another year to go of that work. After that, though, it’s going to be tough.”

Smog over Denver.

A survey conducted by a bipartisan research team – Republican polling service Public Opinion Strategies and Democratic pollsters Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates – found that 79 percent of Colorado voters prefer renewable energy and natural gas over coal.

And 76 percent of those responding support Xcel’s plan, mandated by last session’s House Bill 1365. That bill, passed in late March, brought together an odd mixture of environmentalists, Republicans, Democrats and natural-gas backers. It was touted mainly as a method of reducing emissions on the Front Range ahead of pending federal regulation, and Colorado’s coal industry bitterly opposed the bill.

Tuesday’s poll also revealed support across the political and geographic spectrum, including among Democrats (89 percent), independents (73 percent), Republicans (64 percent), Denver metropolitan area residents (78 percent) and Western Slope residents (70 percent).

“It comes as no surprise that a strong majority of Coloradans support moving in this bold direction,” Pete Maysmith, executive director Colorado Conservation Voters, said in a release. “This effort has always been a testament to bi-partisan solution-seeking in an era of ‘me first’ politics because Coloradans across the board understand that clean air is critical for a healthy Colorado.”

Only three Republicans voted for 1365 in the Colorado Senate, including former Minority Leader and co-sponsor Josh Penry, whose Western Slope district includes extensive natural gas drilling. Other Western Slope lawmakers were conflicted on the bill, including Democrat turned independent Kathleen Curry, who voted against the legislation because her house district includes both gas drilling and coal mining.

“[Voting no] was an economic thing because I don’t think we should actually dictate the market that way,” Curry, I-Gunnison, told the Colorado Independent earlier this summer. “If coal can’t stand on its own two feet if they’re given a level playing field … then so be it. But I didn’t feel that was the right role of government to step in.”

State Rep. Judy Solano, D-Brighton, said the new poll merely confirms what she already knew when she signed on as one of the House sponsors. “Coloradans are ready to move to a cleaner, healthier energy future — one that cleans up our air, strengthens our economy, and brings a better quality of life.”

Sen. Al White, R-Hayden, voted against 1365 mostly on economic grounds.

“I’ve got four out of eight operating coal mines in my district as well as the largest and most impacted coal mine, the Twentymile Mine, which is going to lose about a fourth of their production sales as a result of this bill,” said White, who is unconvinced emissions and climate change considerations warrant the switchover to gas and renewables.

“If we can take sane and reasonable steps to mitigate whatever impact we might be having [on the climate], then that’s a responsible thing to do, but given my uncertainty of what the cause is, it’s not responsible for us to do it to the extent that it’s going to cause our energy costs to go through the roof,” White added.

However, the new poll found that support for the Xcel plan and HB 1365 “remains solid after voters hear about the cost implications of plan,” with 71 percent still in favor with a 1 percent increase in consumer prices and 68 percent support with a 3 percent increase.

Charred school buses in the wake of Boulder County's Fourmile Canyon Fire. (Photo by Eric Peter Abramson, area resident)

The report concludes lower snowpack, less overall precipitation and increased temperatures will directly lead to more wildfires in Colorado. Other studies have found insect epidemics spurred on by warmer temperatures and drought will also up the fire risk.

A new report conducted by the Forest Service and published in the journal Bioscience links climate change to an increase in spruce and mountain pine beetles, which have killed more than 2 million acres of trees in Colorado and Wyoming in recent years. The bugs thrive in warmer temperatures.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, a Democrat whose home is just south of Boulder in Eldorado Springs, has been pushing hard for more federal funding to help the Forest Service and other federal, state and local agencies clear dead and dying trees away from communities, water storage facilities, power lines and other key infrastructure.

Udall already this year has steered $30 million to the Forest Service and other federal agencies to clear about 14,000 acres of dead trees near communities and more than 350 recreation sites in Colorado (map). And now he’s pushing for $50 million more through his National Forest Insect and Disease Emergency Act, which passed out of the Senate Energy and National Resources Committee but still needs full Senate approval.

“Wildfire is a threat Colorado communities face, in part because of the damage the bark beetle epidemic has inflicted on millions of acres of trees,” Udall said on his website. “I’m not going to rest in my efforts to secure additional funding and support to reduce the wildfire threats throughout Colorado.”

But there is ongoing debate on just how much more susceptible forests are to wildfire in the wake of the naturally occurring beetle kill epidemic and just how deep into the forest clearing of dead trees should occur. Some environmentalists, scientists and politicians want to limit that clearing to areas directly adjacent to communities, especially if new road building is required.

“Millions of acres are beetle infected and to get in there and to clear and thin beetle-killed trees is just a herculean effort, and I don’t know that our federal treasury has enough money to do that or that any governmental entity could undertake such a task,” said state Sen. Al White, R-Hayden, whose district has been one of the hardest hit by the epidemic.

White has been frustrated by the slow reaction of the federal bureaucracy to the latest outbreak, which began in earnest in the mid to late 1990s, but now he says nature may have to just run its course in some areas away from towns and key infrastructure.

“This is just a catastrophe of nature, and the best thing you can do is deal with it as best you can, and probably what that means is private property owners trying to create defensible space around their houses and out buildings and keep our fingers crossed,” he said. “I know that sounds a little fatalistic, but that’s pretty much the reality of it.”

Dr. Barry Noon, a professor of wildlife ecology at Colorado State University, argues against much more than a 100-foot buffer zone around private property.

“If the goal is to protect homes, I would focus the creation of the defensible space very locally. I know of no evidence that would argue that it needs to be more than a mile or beyond 40 meters for that matter,” Noon told the Colorado Independent earlier this year.

In Vail, where Fire Chief Mark Miller has his crews thinning a 150-foot defensible perimeter around the town, the beetle kill wildfire threat is being taken very seriously.

“There are some different studies that show beetle kill doesn’t burn any worse and we’re no more susceptible than we are with green forest. However, that’s not necessarily the case,” Miller said. “Beetle kill stands can burn with more intensity than live trees and they have the tendency to put off a lot more spot fires.”

The beetle kill epidemic is moving slowly east toward the Front Range but hasn’t yet hit the Boulder area nearly as hard as Grand County, which is just to the west over the Continental Divide. But a wet spring and summer created plenty of vegetation that dried out during recent warm, dry weather in Boulder. High winds on Monday did the rest, quickly spreading the Fourmile Fire to more than 6,000 acres.

That’s a small area compared to the state’s largest ever wildfire – the 138,000-acre Hayman Fire along the Front Range south of Denver in 2002 – but the Boulder blaze has destroyed more homes now than Hayman, and firefighters are very worried it will flare up again today before winds die down again over the weekend.

There are several new tools for tracking the Fourmile Fire, including an aggregate Google map launched Wednesday to allow residents and the general public to track and post fire updates, closure areas and photos of property damage and destruction. It’s being moderated and requires sourcing.

Project Epic, a joint scientific project of the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of California, Irvine, is mapping tweeted reports from the Fourmile Canyon Fire.

Taran Volckhausen contributed to this report

The 5th Judicial District Republican DA was trounced 71 percent to 29 percent by the Tea Partier Tim Leonard in his bid to reach the primary ballot for state Senate District 16, meaning Hurlbert has until May 27 to collect 1,000 valid registered Republican signatures if he goes the petition route.

That’s a process he apparently started Monday at the Frisco Safeway, according to the Ex-Pat Ex-Lawyer blog, which purports to have an email from Hurlbert soliciting support and rallying people to come out to the Safeway again today between 3 and 6 p.m.

Hurlbert is portrayed as a RINO (Republican In Name Only) on that blog and was painted an anti-gun, anti-Second-Amendment career politician at the SD 16 assembly in Loveland Friday. His resounding defeat at the hands of former American Constitution Party member Leonard prompted SD 8 state Sen. Al White to tell Hurlbert, “I’m sorry Mark,” according to the Denver Post.

White, a moderate himself, was clearly lamenting the fact that Hurlbert would have been highly electable in the independent-minded mountain communities of Summit County, where Hurlbert lives in Breckenridge. Now the Dems would appear to have a leg up holding onto the seat now occupied by Dan Gibbs, who’s quitting to run for Summit County commissioner.

Former public health nurse and Gilpin County Commissioner Jeanne Nicholson, who lives in Gilpin County just outside of Golden Gate State Park, is the Democratic pick. Leonard, whose 11-year-old son is his campaign manager, lives in Jefferson County.

Lately, Hurlbert has been taking heat for his handling of bib-swapping case in last year’s Leadville 100 mountain bike race. He issued felony charges to two women, one of whom wound up pleading guilty to a misdemeanor. He also was embroiled in some small-town controversy in Leadville swirling around a sheriff’s deputy who Tasered high school students at their request.

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Even before he introduced the bill in March, Ferrandino knew the battle would be waged in the Senate, where lawmakers have in the past successfully plead the case for non-regulation of the industry. Ferrandino is now cautiously optimistic that the bill that emerged from the Senate Friday remains “good step in the right direction.”

“The bill’s obviously weaker than the original version, but I think it gets us to where I want to be. It is a much more complicated bill now, so the question is Will the industry find loopholes within the law? I think the intent of the bill is clear, but do they find loopholes?

“I think the way the Senate looked at it, and I was part of that discussion, was really to allow the consumer the power to decide how long the loan would be and make sure they don’t get caught inside the cycle of debt. We’ll see by next year if it doesn’t work out as intended.”

Ferrandino has argued since he introduced the controversial bill months ago that the payday loan industry makes its profits by sinking its customers into escalating debt. What has been a good business model for the industry has been bad for its customers, he has said. The short-term credit on offer has been “cheese for a trap” that produces windfall profits on the backs of people often struggling to make it day to day.

Republicans and three Democrats, including Sens. Linda Newell, D-Littleton, and Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton, fought hard against the original bill, which the industry estimated would have shuttered 70 percent of payday lending operations in the state, which would have cost at least hundreds of jobs.

Sponsored by Sen. Chris Rommer, D-Denver, that version was amended Thursday by Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, cutting back on the strictest interest and fee regulations. Heath said he was unwilling to support a bill that killed the industry.The amendment passed, basically restructuring the industry into a six-month short term loan business that would allow borrowers to pay in installments.

The bill will cap payday loans at a 45 percent annual percentage rate (APR). Lenders can charge up to $75 installment fees on $500 maximum loan amounts; $20 fees for $100 loans and for first-time $300; and $7.50 for each subsequent $100. In addition, a maintenance fee of $7.50 on each $100 up to $30 can be charged by lenders each month that the loan remains outstanding. If a borrower fails to make any payment before the end of six months, they would pay $335 for a $500 loan. The loan can be rolled over once. As it is now, customers have to pay back their loans in two week or one-month intervals, quickly falling behind and wracking up fees and interest.

Negotiations with the industry according to Heath broke down over whether the monthly fee should be capped at $30 or $60. Payday lenders were asking for $60 at a minimum.

Tochtrop offered her own amendment in support of the industry. She said Heath’s amendment didn’t go far enough to protect payday lenders. “This is not the agreement,” she said, apparently referring to conversations made between the industry and lawmakers, opponents and supporters of the bill. “This is not going to keep payday lenders in business… If this bill passes, we are going to lose jobs. Nobody is putting a gun to the head of a consumer and making them take out a payday loan,” she said.

Most Republicans supported an industry-backed amendment brought forward by Tochtrop that would have restructured the industry to offer installment plans but also would have raised the cap on fees to $60. The amendment was defeated.

“If the industry can’t make it on these new numbers then they are doing something wrong,” Heath said after helping to pass the final vote.

Republicans fighting against the bill made fairly straight ideological arguments against government interference. They said it was not the place of government to regulate industry and effectively destroy it.

“What we are here today to decide is should this industry continue or shall it be put to sleep at the discretion of the Colorado legislature,” said Sen. Al White, R-Hayden.

White said that if lawmakers kill the payday loan industry through regulation, they would be delivering payday customers into the arms of organized crime and their sharks. He said the original version of the bill would have unintended grave consequences for payday customers.

“If we pass this bill, we are inviting organized crime into Colorado…. Organized crime makes these loans and you know how they collect? They send Willie the Enforcer out to your house, and Willie the Enforcer is not satisfied with a post-dated check.”

Heath thought White was being over the top. “This industry is regulated by the general assembly now. It just comes down to whether we [levy] a $30 or a $60 fee.”

Heath said that the industry had convinced him that it couldn’t survive without a fee but that he was not convinced the fee had to be $60.

“Allowing people a longer time to payback the loan will limit the cycle of debt,” Heath said.

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Colorado coal miner completing paperwork for black lung screening. (Flickr: Niosh)

The fallout from the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion that killed 29 miners in West Virginia on April 5 – and revealed a pattern of ongoing intimidation and denial by Virginia-based Massey Energy – has had ripple effects throughout the industry. Federal officials, from local offices on up to the White House, have been scrutinizing coal-mining operations.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration this week released a list of 57 potential problem mines that drew a small army of inspectors last week. Only one Colorado coal mine – the Foidel Creek Mine near Oak Creek in Routt County – made the list. Results of the inspection are not yet available.

Colorado’s coal production of just over 32,000 short tons a year pales in comparison to West Virginia, which produces more than 157,000 tons a year. Wyoming tops the list at nearly 468,000 tons a year or 40 percent of the nation’s production.

Although Colorado ranks in the top 10 in production it has not had a major mine accident since an explosion killed 15 miners at the Dutch Creek No. 1 near Redstone in Pitkin County in 1981.

Zeroed in on emissions

Instead of zeroing in on safety issues, Colorado politicians from both parties have been focusing on emissions from Colorado’s older, coal-fired power plants. Despite Gov. Bill Ritter’s “New Energy Economy” that seeks to boost the state’s renewable energy portfolio to 30 percent by 2025 (using natural gas as a bridge fuel), the state still generates more than 65 percent of its electricity by burning coal.

Earlier this week, Ritter signed into law the rapidly crafted Clean Air Clean Jobs Act, which requires Xcel Energy, the state’s largest utility, to shut down or retrofit several coal-fired power plants on the Front Range so that they burn natural gas, which is 50 percent cleaner than coal but more expensive to produce and distribute.

The fast-tracking of that bill, which brought together the state’s powerful natural gas industry, Xcel and state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, has been criticized by some Republicans and Colorado mining representatives who say coal was left out in the cold.

State Sen. Al White, R-Hayden, whose district includes the Foidel Mine near Oak Creek, voted against the bill because he said it would destroy the state’s coal-mining industry.

“We have a saying in northwest Colorado that when the wolf and the coyote and the sheep get together to decide what’s on the menu, the sheep doesn’t turn out in such good shape,” White told the Denver Post last week.

Three Republican senators did vote for the bill, including former gubernatorial candidate Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, the Senate minority leader whose district is rich with natural gas. Penry co-sponsored the Clean Air Clean Jobs Act because of its potential to create drilling jobs. He largely rejects the climate change benefits of reducing coal consumption.

Roadless Rules

Penry and state Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, circulated a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack late last week urging the Obama administration to accept the recently submitted Colorado Roadless Rule, which would allow road-building exemptions for coal mining in roadless areas of Colorado’s 4.2 million acres of federally owned public lands.

One of the reasons cited was the need for roads in order to drill vents to release methane gas, which is what federal officials believe built up and exploded earlier this month at the Upper Big Branch Mine.

Several Democrats signed Penry’s letter, and Democrats including U.S. Sen. Mark Udall are supportive of the Colorado Roadless Rule. Some scientists and conservationists, however, remain highly critical of the rule and favor the 2001 Clinton Roadless Rule, which was tossed out by the Bush administration and has been tied up in court for nearly a decade.

“To the best of my knowledge, nothing in any roadless rule right now, whether it’s the Colorado rule or the Clinton rule, is preventing any of these mines in the North Fork Valley [of the Gunnison River – the state’s coal-mining hotspot] from doing what they want to do right now,” said Jeremy Nichols, Denver-based climate and energy program director for WildEarth Guardians.

Instead, Nichols said Colorado’s coal industry should be more focused on the bigger picture nationally, especially given the potential for federal climate change legislation and tougher EPA regulation of emissions cited by proponent of the Clean Air Clean Jobs Act.

“If anything’s going to be an issue for these [Colorado coal] mines, it’s going to be climate policy,” Nichols said. “What’s the future of coal here? Not only do you have the coal coming out of the ground and being burned in coal-fired power plants, but the release of methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas in and of itself, also is a big deal.”

Some Colorado conservationists have been pushing the BLM to require Colorado coal mines to either capture or flare methane in order to mitigate the venting of the gas, which is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

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