Author: Sean Paige
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PERSPECTIVE: A reprieve for reliable Colorado energy?
The Sierra Club threw a fake “retirement party” for the Ray Nixon power plant in Colorado Springs a few weeks back. The media stunt came complete with balloons, signs, retirement cards and speeches. But maybe it’s the Sierra-Clubbers who should retire, given how hopelessly disconnected they are from energy realities not just in Colorado Springs but in…
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PERSPECTIVE: A crazy train to energy oblivion in Colorado
Colorado’s Green Energy Express is careening out of control and heading for a derailment. The only thing that can prevent it now are alert ratepayers recognizing the warning signs and regaining control of this runaway train. It’ll require a return to common sense and energy realism. Nothing short of a utility ratepayer revolt will avert…
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A crazy train to energy oblivion
Colorado’s Green Energy Express is careening out of control and heading for a derailment. The only thing that can prevent it now are alert ratepayers recognizing the warning signs and regaining control of this runaway train. It’ll require a return to common sense and energy realism. Nothing short of a utility ratepayer revolt will avert…
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PERSPECTIVE: ‘Historic landscape’ — or land grab?
Most of us count ourselves lucky to live in Colorado, whether we’re natives or transplants, due to the spectacular natural amenities. We’re understandably protective of those landscapes as a result. But honest disagreements arise when new environmental “protections” are proposed that aren’t well-timed, don’t seem justified, and carry a high risk of unintended consequences. Controversy…
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GUEST COLUMN: ‘Rewilding’ will backfire on Colorado
The voters have spoken. Colorado has little choice now but to follow through on a ballot measure, narrowly approved in November 2020, that requires the “rewilding” of rural Colorado with imported gray wolves. The costs, complications and potential chaos that could result remind one of H.L. Mencken’s definition of democracy, which he called “the theory…
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PERSPECTIVE: Biden plan won’t stop the next wildfire
There goes Washington again, throwing money at a problem. But will the huge sums Joe Biden recently pledged to spend on national forest restoration and wildfire prevention — $50 billion over 10 years — really do the job? As someone who has watched and occasionally written about the issue for more than 20 years, I…
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Point/Counterpoint: After the Firestone explosion, should oil and gas companies face tighter safety restrictions?
Sean Paige The ruins of a Colorado home were still smoldering, and two individuals killed inside weren’t even buried yet, when opportunists began looking for ways to exploit the April 17 house explosion in Firestone to further an anti-energy agenda that’s more about vilifying energy producers than protecting public safety. Days later, investigators linked the…
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Point/counterpoint: Is President Trump a threat to the freedom of the press?
Sean Paige Are relations between the new president and the Washington press corps strained, damaged and probably destined to get worse, at least in the short run? Yes. Do these tensions pose any real, trickle-down threat to freedom of the press generally, or to our First Amendment protections? I just don’t see that. There’s no…
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GUEST COLUMN: Save Browns Canyon from its would-be saviors
One problem with most politicians is that they just don’t know when to leave well-enough alone. That impulse to fix what isn’t broken helps explain why so many of their “solutions” make matters worse. One prime example of this is the push by Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall to get President Barack Obama to…
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GUEST COLUMN: Let’s try local solutions for Jones Park
Imagine you had a prized piece of real estate – a home, a cabin, a lakeside lot – you were forced to part with but still wanted protected, cared-for and put to good future use. Would you in good conscience sell or give that property to a lousy landlord like Uncle Sam, who’s well-known for…