Grousing About Promises

March 18, 2015

My home county (Mesa County) commissioners have decided to join several others in suing the federal government for listing the Gunnison sage grouse as “threatened.” It is the right move. Sometimes the courts are the last resort against bullies. The controversy over the bird’s listing is not just ironic (we have been here before but […]

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Just Because It’s There

March 12, 2015

The information age has brought Americans closer together in countless ways. Yet the gulf of misunderstanding between east and west may be wider than ever before. The growth of knowledge, information, and instant communication has dramatically increased our access to other points of view. It has also reduced our need to listen. We now tailor […]

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Frying Birds in Midair

August 20, 2014

At the most modern solar power plant in the world, researchers are now saying the magnified sun rays are setting birds on fire in midair – by the thousands. They call them “streamers,” because of the smoke plume that is quite visible as they ignite and plummet to earth. Stories of the scorched birds were […]

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Build it Now – But Not Here?

April 28, 2014

There is an impassioned conversation inside the Beltway lately about massive investments in liquefied natural gas (LNG) around the world, while several such projects in the U.S. have been abandoned or put on hold. Part of that conversation is about how different European politics and economics would be if the major energy supplier were the […]

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The Voice and The Vision of Bo Callaway

March 20, 2014

“The voice and the vision” – those were the words of the campaign song that accompanied Howard “Bo” Callaway through his 1980 U.S. Senate race (my first campaign as a staffer), but the words really capture much of his life and legacy. In Georgia, Colorado, and Washington, D.C., Bo Callaway pioneered a principled approach to […]

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Readers Want Science, Not Political Activism

February 6, 2014

News articles, however well-meaning, sometimes lead readers to inaccurate conclusions. Occasionally, the headline is to blame; often, the reporter, who cannot be expected to be an expert on every conceivable topic, lacks the time and resources to dig deeply into the story. Such is likely the case with a recent article called Chemicals Used in […]

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Lights Out!

January 10, 2014

I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Four years ago I wrote an article about the bill that banned incandescent light bulbs. It has now taken full effect, and as of January 1, it is now illegal in the U.S. to manufacture or sell Thomas Edison’s invention that changed […]

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Local Elections Aside, Colorado’s Real Fracking Policy

November 29, 2013

Following this month’s elections, five northern Colorado cities now ban fracking within their city limits, though there will certainly be lawsuits challenging cities’ authority to do so (one such case is already filed). The majority votes on these ballot initiatives is ironic in light of Colorado’s national leadership for more than a decade in pursuing […]

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If a Tree Fell in an Empty Forest….

October 4, 2013

If the government shut down the forest, and nobody was there to see it, would it still be there? Would the trees still live? Would the trails still lead anywhere? Would the deer and the antelope still play? If you think so, then you are among the tens of millions of Americans who think life […]

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Taking the Fifth

September 12, 2013

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court struck another blow for private property rights and further strengthened the Fifth Amendment prohibition against taking private property for public purposes without just compensation. Unfortunately, the Court also added to the inconsistent body of law surrounding the takings issue. The latest case, Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management, […]

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