Evangelical leader smacks McCain for lack of ‘principle’
Richard Cizik is one of the country’s most powerful and outspoken Christian evangelical leaders. He happens to be a Republican, and he has known the GOP's presidential nominee for many years. “I thought John McCain was a principled person,” Cizik says. “But John McCain has backed off, not just on climate change but on torture and a sensible tax policy — in other words, he’s not the John McCain of 2000 ... He seems to be waffling on issue after issue.
“It’s not illogical for someone to conclude that John McCain is going to be more like George Bush than John McCain is going to be like John McCain in 2000.”
Amendment 58 group makes Interior Dept sex scandal a campaign issue
The day after U.S. Interior Department officials detailed for Congress the sordid sex and drug scandal in its Denver oil royalty office, a spokesman for a group trying to roll back oil and gas tax subsidies in Colorado said public outrage can only help Amendment 58.
Raising severance taxes won’t deter oil and gas drilling, says expert
This November, Coloradans will be faced with two ballot initiatives dealing with how the state collects and allocates taxes on the oil and gas industry. Severance tax, so-named because it applies to natural resources permanently severed from the earth, not only dominates part of the the state's ballot, but also much of the political discourse this election season. Some fear that increasing taxes on the industry — as Governor Bill Ritter's Amendment 58 will do — will only scare off oil and gas companies or raise gas prices in Colorado.
CU scientists: Arctic sea ice hits second-lowest point since measurements began
Arctic sea ice appears to have stopped melting for the summer, leaving behind the second-greatest expanse of ocean than any year since scientists began measuring, according to a report released this week by the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. There was slightly more ice-melt last summer, the NSIDC said, but the preliminary 2008 data show nearly 1 million square miles less sea ice than average over the last 30 years.
Lawmakers at odds on competing oil and gas severance tax amendments
State lawmakers and energy experts are hotly debating a pair of dueling oil and gas severance tax questions on the Nov. 4 ballot, with even some Republicans divided on Amendment 52, which is being touted by conservatives as an alternative to Gov. Bill Ritter’s Amendment 58 tax hike.
How to achieve energy independence? Invest, baby, invest
As reported in the Colorado Independent today, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) thinks 32,000 jobs would come to Colorado through a $100 billion government investment in the "greenvolution" (I made that word up, not NRDC, though it does get 338 hits on Google). With all the renewable research already taking place in Colorado I think that number could go way higher, but more importantly an investment in new energy technology would put America on track for continued economic dominance in this next major world industry.
Read more of Jeff's commentaries: • Cable news wallows in minutiae, nation suffers • Obama in Pueblo redux • Live from the Obama rally in Pueblo • Obama's excellent Colorado adventure
Lowry Range project partners with NREL, still has environmental questions to address
Lend Lease, a Denver-based chapter of the global Australian real estate company of the same name, this week announced it is partnering with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to incorporate environmentally friendly energy, water and waste features that will produce a “net zero” effect on the more than 4,000 acres of land it plans to develop in Colorado, according to the Denver Business Journal.
But Lend Lease has spent the last few years skirting answers about environmental concerns when it comes to its largest Colorado project.
Senate race sparks Western Slope energy debates
In many ways, the race for state Senate District 8 in Northwest Colorado is emblematic of the intense conflict between the state’s resurgent mining and energy industries and the long-dominant tourism and outdoor recreation economy that boomed after the last mining bust.
A greenprint for the next administration?
The path to rebuilding the nation’s economy, including Colorado’s job market, is going green in a big way, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
A “Green Recovery” proposal from NRDC Sept. 9 details how a $100 billion program could use tax credits, loans and public-private partnerships to jumpstart environmentally friendly businesses that would create two million jobs – including 32,000 in Colorado – in the next two years.
Obama’s Colorado speech: Golden moments and lumps of coal
Barack Obama's speech in Golden on Tuesday — live-blogged by The Colorado Independent's Naomi Zeveloff — is already getting notice in the national press as signaling a prominent shift from Palin-era distractions to a bare-knuckle fight over the economy.