Closer Than You Might Think

March 11, 2022

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has more pundits than ever talking about the role energy plays in world affairs. Many of TV’s most venerated talking heads seem to have discovered, for the first time, that much of Europe depends on Russian oil and gas, and that alternate suppliers, such as the United States, could change that. […]

Read the full article →

Saving the Forests – By Cutting Them?

March 4, 2022

Last week, we considered the Biden Administration’s ten-year, $50 billion strategy for addressing the national forest fire crisis. That would more than double the budget of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), to reduce wildfires and restore health to 20 million acres of national forests in the West. Not all across the West, but in a few […]

Read the full article →

If Money Were No Object

February 25, 2022

Imagine how much good we could do in this life if we had unlimited resources. If money were no object, we could cure nearly all the world’s ills and create better lives for everybody, right? Fifty-seven years ago, President Lyndon Johnson declared “unconditional war on poverty.” Over 200 federal programs and $28 trillion later – […]

Read the full article →

As Long as Your Feet Are Wet

February 18, 2022

Johann Wyss’s 1812 classic, Swiss Family Robinson, describes an incident in which the narrator’s son Ernest is scolded for fearing wet feet. As a result, he is denied the pleasure of eating the day’s catch, a giant lobster, because he didn’t help catch it. His father admonishes him never again to be afraid of getting […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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, […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →