The Problem is Serious – The Response Is Not

February 9, 2022

President Biden travelled to Pittsburgh last week to push his proposed $1.2 trillion “Build Back Better Act.” In one of the great coincidences in the annals of political strategy, a major bridge collapsed just before his arrival, sending a bus and four cars into the ravine. Fortunately, nobody was killed, unlike the horrific 2007 collapse […]

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Which Side Will Colorado Be On?

February 4, 2022

Sometimes as part of a dire prediction, someone will say, “I hope I’m wrong, but…” When I heard about a new petition for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear another appeal on the extent of federal jurisdiction over water – the perennial “Waters of the U.S.” (WOTUS) issue, I did not think the nation’s highest […]

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There is a Much Easier Way

January 29, 2022

An announcement last week in Lincoln, Nebraska raised the hackles of everyone involved in Colorado water. Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts unveiled a $500 million plan to build canals in Colorado to divert water from the South Platte River into Nebraska, and to condemn private land in Colorado, if necessary, for that purpose. That last bit […]

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Let’s settle This, Once and For All

January 21, 2022

The infamous Hatfield-McCoy family feud lasted from the Civil War through the trial of Johnse Hatfield in 1901, finally ending only by an old-fashioned public hanging in Pike County, Kentucky. More than a dozen family members and friends had been murdered, including a New Year’s Eve Massacre, and a pitched battle between two small armies […]

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You’ve Been Told a Million Times

January 14, 2022

When someone seems to be playing fast and loose with numbers, it is an effective comeback to say, “You’ve been told a million times not to exaggerate.” We see it all the time in TV ads, though there is nobody to whom we can make such clever remarks. My dad was in the advertising business, […]

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In One Year and Out the Other

January 1, 2022

In Ancient Babylon, people swore oaths to return borrowed objects and pay off all their debts. The tradition of New Year’s resolutions has persisted ever since. Mark Twain called New Year’s Day “a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks… and humbug resolutions.” One comedian observed […]

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Looking for Other Alternatives

December 31, 2021

When we burn coal to generate electricity, we are said to be contributing to the long-term destruction of the Earth’s capacity to support life. So thousands of communities and utilities have switched to natural gas, only to be told that fracking might be poisoning the ground water and in perhaps setting faucets on fire. Biomass […]

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Obey It, or Defy It – It’s Still the Law

December 24, 2021

Politicians generally think in government terms, assuming there is a government solution to every problem. But despite that inherent hubris, there is one law no government can ever repeal, or even substantively amend – the law of supply and demand. It has always been, and will always be, a fact of human nature, because people […]

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What If Nature Were For Sale?

December 13, 2021

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) recently announced the launch of a new “asset class,” one whose members will be referred to as “Natural Asset Companies.” The project was developed by NYSE and Intrinsic Exchange Group, which is a partnership of the Inter-American Development Bank, the Rockefeller Foundation, and a venture capital firm called Aberdare […]

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Can’t Have It Both Ways

December 10, 2021

Coloradans may want wind and solar energy to replace all the traditional power sources, and have made it a statewide goal. But they oppose construction of power lines that are required to accomplish that objective. How can they have it both ways? That predicament has tied the New Jersey legislature in knots for months, over […]

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