A New National Sacrifice Zone

September 20, 2024

A couple years ago a little-noticed report called, “Beyond Carbon-Free: A Framework for Purpose-Led Renewable Energy Procurement and Development” was published by an energy company in Seattle, together with the Nature Conservancy and the National Audubon Society. It suggested that the goal of net-zero carbon emissions would require “massive areas of land for development,” perhaps […]

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Easements on Water – An Idea Whose Time…

September 13, 2024

French novelist Emile Souvestre famously wrote in 1848 that “There is something more powerful than strength, than courage, than genius itself: it is the idea whose time has come.” It was later paraphrased by Victor Hugo, often quoted as, “More powerful than the tread of an army is an idea whose time has come.” It […]

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“Cumulative Impact” Should Work Both Ways

September 10, 2024

They’re getting old now, but I still know people who lament the urban sprawl they think ruined Denver. They miss sleepy little towns that used to be miles away from Denver and have completely separate identities – places like Parker, Golden, and Louisville. Today it’s one giant “metroplex,” as the Census Bureau calls it, and […]

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Can the Federal Government Own Land Forever?

August 30, 2024

The U.S. government paid $55 million for the entire West.  That’s less than a sixth of the annual budget of Grand Junction. In five separate treaties, the U.S. acquired the whole country from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. The 1803 Louisiana Purchase cost $23.2 million for all or parts of 14 states. In […]

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Protecting Dolores Canyons – From What?

August 23, 2024

The Sentinel’s Dennis Webb wrote an excellent and thorough article a few weeks ago about the effort to protect Dolores Canyons, including proposals for a national monument, a national conservation area, and several other options. As he chronicled, opinions are almost as varied as the communities potentially affected. One Nucla resident who opposes the monument […]

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Making Computers Out of – Wind?

August 16, 2024

I just attended a reception with Colorado oil and gas employees, and the conversation was eye opening. I expected to hear about how difficult life in America would be without fossil fuels. There was some of that, but not in the way I expected. Many of the conversations were not about how badly we need […]

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The Great Electric Vehicle Pushback

August 7, 2024

Though still only in her 40s, Germany Kent is an award-winning journalist, activist, beauty queen, producer, business leader, philanthropist, and author of the best-selling series of “Hope Handbooks.” She’s been around enough to have learned some of life’s great truths and is frequently quoted, this being among her wisest advice: “It is more important to […]

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First, Let’s Define Our Terms

August 2, 2024

Years ago as a high school and college debater, I was trained to begin making my case by defining key terms. A debate gets incoherent if the two sides don’t agree on what the topic is, or what is being proposed. Voltaire famously wrote, “Define your terms… or we shall never understand one another.” The […]

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Save Dolores Canyons, Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge

July 26, 2024

In a famous 1969 sketch from Monte Python’s Flying Circus, Eric Idle approaches a stranger in a pub with a series of cryptic relationship questions, ending each with “wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more.” The skit was so popular it was repeated in the 1971 film, “And Now For Something Completely Different,” the 1982 […]

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Not Persuaded by a Million-Mile Car

July 19, 2024

Atlantic writer Mateo Wong gushes about “a group of people in a red Tesla driving through the Moroccan desert,” when one exclaims, “Two million, Hans!” Apparently, the 2014 Model S became the first electric car to drive 2 million kilometers, or 1.24 million miles. It turns out that to achieve that milestone, the car needed […]

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