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Environment/Energy

County commish to back mining reform in testimony on the Hill

Gunnison County Commissioner Jim Starr will be among the witnesses testifying Thursday before a House subcommittee debating a bill that would reform the 1872 Mining Law enacted during the Ulysses S. Grant administration, which to date has not issued a statement opposing the move.

Gay rights group slams Renfroe for comparing homosexuality to murder

A prominent national gay rights organization on Tuesday blasted Colorado state Sen. Scott Renfroe for comparing homosexuality to murder when he spoke Monday against a bill that would extend health benefits to same-sex domestic partners of state employees.

Text of Obama’s speech: ‘America will emerge stronger than before’

Here's the text of President Barack Obama's speech to Congress on Tuesday night, as prepared for delivery. Read the responses to the speech from Colorado's congressional delegation here. Follow the live Twitter discussion here.

Glenwood ‘regs rally’ to back more stringent rules for oil, gas drilling

Garfield County, the so-called “ground zero” of the late, great oil and gas boom, will be the scene of a rally in support of the more stringent drilling regulations currently being debated in the Statehouse in Denver.

‘Green’ ski resort inspires innovative renewable energy plan

Not to be outdone by its up-valley neighbor Vail, the mountain town of Avon, 10 miles to the west, is also considering building a wood gasification biomass power plant that would consume beetle-kill trees and provide hot-water heat and electricity throughout town. Both cities are now on the hunt to capture renewable energy dollars from the federal stimulus package with innovative but proven technologies and a bevy of dead trees to fuel the projects.

Aspen’s green guru takes on critics, touts new book on sustainability

Can Colorado’s ski industry, which markets to millionaires who jet in on fuel-guzzling Gulfstreams, inhabit 10,000-square-foot starter castles two weeks a year, ski on artificial snow and walk on snow-melted streets, in any way lay claim to being a green leader?

Scanlan hopes to whip up beetle-mania inside Beltway

State House Majority Whip Christine Scanlan, D-Dillon, is whipping up a little beetle-mania this week in Washington, ratcheting up the rhetoric in the war for more money to battle the bug that won the West.

Fewer ‘green’ transportation jobs in stimulus than touted

President Obama’s economic stimulus program might be considered green, but it’s still got a big streak of gray. The $785 billion spending bill that Obama signed Tuesday, shortly after he toured the sparkling solar-paneled roof of the Denver Museum, will save or create 3.5 million jobs over the next two years, according to the White House. Environmental groups, happy about the sharp departure from Bush administration policies, say up to 1.5 million or 40 percent of the jobs created by the unprecedented legislation will be green — meaning they will contribute to decreasing energy consumption, lowering oil demand and switching to renewable sources.

Energy stimulus turns into tilting at nuke-powered windmills

From the moment the federal stimulus package was first proposed, crank-celebrity "free market" enthusiasts have been whipping up their fans by crying "socialism" as often as possible -- demonstrating how little cranks understand both free markets and socialism. I'd write it off as merely tilting at windmills, except that tilting at windmills sounds too reality-based given the prominence renewable energy is playing in the country's recovery and reinvestment plan.

Republican action heroes

In honor of state Rep. Don Marostica (R-Loveland) and his lone, epic battle among his GOP colleagues to bring fiscal sanity to the state budget.
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