Natural gas may be a cleaner-burning energy source than coal, but making the switch isn’t likely to slow global warming any time soon, according to a new study in the journal Climatic Change.
While critics on the right have accused the Obama administration of moving too slowly on the still-unproven potential of oil shale on Colorado’s Western Slope, observers on the left say the White House has been pushing too fast on an agenda promoting Wyoming’s Powder River Basin coal and tar sands oil production in Canada.
As Colorado generates a third of its energy from renewables, forecasts are that much higher percentages could come soon at relatively low cost.
A phone survey of 2,200 registered voters in five western states, including 600 in Colorado, found that a majority of western voters think the amount of their state’s electricity being produced by renewable energy sources should “dramatically increase,” even if it means paying more on their utility bill.
Conservative Denver Post columnist Vince Carroll Wednesday underlined a move by new state House GOP leadership to do away with the energy part of the House Transportation and Energy Committee, a move meant to signal a priority shift away…
The political ramifications of Gov. Bill Ritter’s “New Energy Economy” are likely to energize at least one state House race on the Western Slope, where coal mining and natural gas production are now at odds over the governor’s Clean Air Clean Jobs Act. In the south, sprawling House District 61 includes heavy coal mining along the North Fork of the Gunnison River, and in the north the district includes the eastern reaches of Garfield County’s mega gas patch.
About 300 people rallied on the west steps of the state capitol Monday morning to show their support for the proposed Clean Air-Clean Jobs Act, which would require Xcel Energy to mothball or retrofit three coal-burning power plants in favor of cleaner-burning gas-powered facilities.
Jeff Biggers, a civil rights activist and cultural historian, watched helplessly a dozen years ago as the hollers of Eagle Creek, Illinois — a corner of the Shawnee National Forest and his family’s home for roughly 200 years — were blasted away, the forested hills bulldozed by companies harvesting the lucrative coal seams underground — a scene from Avatar playing out before the movie was made.
Conservationists appear to be taking a more subtle approach to reforming the fossil-fuel-fixated ways of Colorado’s rural electric associations (REAs) this legislative session, introducing a bill that would daylight the co-op’s board of director elections, but not offering much more in terms of transformative legislation.
Colorado U.S. Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet with 12 other Senate Democrats signed onto a letter (pdf) urging Senate leaders weighing climate legislation to consider granting valuable credits to utilities that rely most heavily on coal. Udall and…
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