Wyoming energy gleanings
Will this EV get to Old Faithful and back. Why Protect our Winters is peeved with the owner of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. And Wyoming efforts to diversify.
Naming Colorado’s 64 counties, one by one
In the afternoon sun of North Park, we had paused along the Michigan River for one last interview, the sun glinting off the snow on the Medicine Bow Range in the background. Then we began the three-hour drive to Denver. Darkness caught up with us by Granby and by...
Wandering in the landscapes and West Virginia and American politics
I’ve been there! I know that place! That’s what I exclaimed to myself at midnight Sunday as I read the online version of the New York Times. The story was about Joe Manchin, the U.S. senator from West Virginia who might as well be called King Manchin, given his power...
Reckoning time on the Colorado River (and its tributaries)
Climate change was talked about before, but not with the same alarm as this year at an annual water meeting, a reflection of what is happening on the ground
Hickenlooper sees 50-50 chance for carbon pricing
Colorado’s junior senator gives carbon pricing a 50-50 chance of passing Congress. Without it, he said, climate change work is “window dressing”
Words veer to sharp edges in the dispute between Tri-State and its biggest co-op
Colorado’s second largest electrical utility has a disagreement with its single largest customer, a kerfuffle reflected in press releases and reactions.
Giant solar farm for the Pueblo steel mill (almost) completed
The giant solar farm near Pueblo that will deliver most of the electricity needed to produce quarter-mile-long rail segments of steel? It’s done.
Auden Schendler on big oil & why voluntary action just isn’t enough
Aspen’s foremost voice on climate change took on the oil giants in a New York Times op/ed, but his point was broader: why carbon neutrality goals fall short.
What will it take to charge a million EVs?
Colorado hopes to have nearly a million electric vehicles by 2030. Xcel Energy doesn’t want them all charging at once. A pilot program may deliver answers.
Can Tri-State clean up its power faster and even deeper?
Colorado’s second largest electrical utility has plans to retreat from coal. Environmental groups want a faster, deeper retreat. We just can’t, says Tri-State.
And now, the cars have been banished!
Something remarkable has happened during the time of covid in Olde Town Arvada, where I live and work. The automobile has been shunted aside. My heart is gladdened.
Katharine Hayhoe on how to change ‘us’ and ‘them’ in climate into ‘saving us’
Bubbly and funny, Katharine Hayhoe has a new book, “Saving Us,” which lays out the strategies for achieving the consensus needed to address climate change.
It’s getting worse and worser yet on the Colorado River
A federal agency has elevated the risk of Lake Powell reaching dead pool, unable to generate electricity. It’s part of what some call the new abnormal.
Study shows warming, drying climate causing fires to climb uphill in Western states
Wildfires can climb higher on mountain slopes because of increasing warmth, increasing Western forests vulnerable to wildfire by 11% new research shows.
Colorado’s oil and gas industry thrives today, but how about a decade from now?
Can Colorado’s oil and gas sector survive the energy transition better than has coal? At a recent industry meeting, speakers seemed to think it would.
How an oil-and-gas man became a leading advocate for capture of a potent greenhouse gas
Tom Vessels spent his life with methane, first trying to get it out of the ground and then trying to make sure it didn’t pollute the sky and warm the planet.
State senator says climate change demands Colorado elevate its decarbonization goals
A Colorado state senator sees a new opening in conservative circles for ideas to decarbonize the state’s economy at an even more brisk pace.
Water building rapidly taking shape on CSU’s new Spur campus in Denver
On the site of former meat-packing plate, a three-story building called Hydro has arisen on Colorado State University’s new Denver campus. The focus: water.
Welcome to Yosemite, the new Pyrocene Park
Binge-burning of fossil fuels has put afterburners on our millennia-long process of ending the Pleistocene, its ice and its mammoths. Welcome to the Pyrocene.
How Kevin Priola became a reliable vote for climate & energy legislation in Colorado
This Colorado legislator plans to remain a Republican. But in climate and energy matters, he stands with Democrats. He traces that to a January morning in 2015.
