Free Republic

Homeowners across Colorado are bracing themselves for a hefty increase in their property tax bills. This is the year county assessors re-value homes and properties. On Wednesday, those assessors warned homeowners that the values are increasing from 30% to more than 60% in some counties. ... "The fact is that there is no reprieve for homeowners this year. From corner to corner of Douglas County and probably the state, all values have gone up quite significantly. If it's rural, if it's suburban, if it's large, if it's small, if it's expensive or inexpensive, all properties in Douglas County in the...

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis wants to steamroll local zoning and land-use rules in favor of his own vision for planning and development across the entire state? Not so fast, say Colorado’s cities. Their opposition first popped up when their chief lobbyist at the Capitol, Kevin Bommer of the Colorado Municipal League, labeled Polis’ plan a “breathtaking power grab.” That was upon its unveiling a few weeks ago as Senate Bill 23-213. It was just the start of the push-back. As reported by Colorado Politics, the CEO of Colorado’s No. 2 city, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, turned up at the...

How to Blow Up a Pipeline is a Brisk Thriller and a Passionate Argument for Revolution The Fictionalization of Andreas Malm’s 2021 Manifesto Asks How Far We Should Go to Fight Climate Destruction and Injustice By Olivia Rutigliano April 7, 2023 The central thesis of Andreas Malm’s manifesto How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire is that peaceful protests have proven themselves ineffective in stopping the widespread annihilation of the earth and its inhabitants by climate change. The book, published by Verso Books in 2021, explains that the only available option is to...

The interpretation of a few words of regulation by the U.S. Treasury Department could upend expectations for how tens of billions of dollars in new electric-vehicle tax incentives will be distributed, according to Bloomberg discussions with a dozen manufacturing executives, battery analysts and government officials. At stake over the coming weeks is the extent to which a critical part of the battery supply chain will end up being made in North America or remain where it’s currently concentrated, in Asia. “There are specific factories — and there are thousands of jobs tied to those — that are hanging in the...

The Federal Government has announced a plan to begin shooting feral cattle from helicopters in order to protect the environment. ... Local ranchers, however, have criticized the plan as cruel and have warned about the unintended consequences ... They say it sets a dangerous precedent, as more and more ranching plots are left vacant across the West and fences become untended. They claim that this could result in privately owned cattle wandering off and getting caught up in the mix. ... ranchers are also worried that the wolves who eat the carcasses of the dead animals will become used to...

Last week, Gov. Jared Polis gave his State of the State address before a joint session of the General Assembly and to all Coloradans around the state. As I and other rural legislators listened to his speech, we couldn’t help but notice something so significant to our state barely received more than a brief mention. As the speech lagged on, it was evident the governor was clearly avoiding talking about it. It became the industrial elephant in the room, if you will. In his 70-minute, 8,000-word monologue, the governor mentioned the word “agriculture” one single time. The words “farms” and...

An overflowing, angry crowd of nearly 200 area citizens filled the Roubideau Room of the Delta County Human Resources room beyond capacity with the door to the room staying open for those who could not fit in the tight space Wednesday evening. The apparent consensus was that new land use restrictions are being placed on their personal land and property, which would result in fees or not allow them to use their land for purposes they intended.. Before the public hearing regarding the land use code began, Planning Commission Chairman Tom Kay gave a brief presentation on the beginnings and...

In response to your recent December news release statement concerning “Principles for Climate-Related Financial Risk Management for Large Financial Institutions” and request for public comments, I have the following comment to your board. The intended purpose of the Federal Reserve is formulating U.S. monetary policy through the control of currency and interest rates, as well as promoting financial stability through the regulating of financial institutions. If members of the Federal Reserve are so concerned about climate, environmental and energy policies, then I strongly suggest that those members resign from the Federal Reserve. These former members could then simply seek other...

Xcel appears to have directed its own natural gas supply to meet reserve requirements rather than generate power during 2021 storm. ... Four Colorado electric cooperatives that buy wholesale power from Xcel Energy have filed a complaint with federal regulators contending the state’s largest electricity provider mismanaged its natural gas supplies during a severe 2021 winter storm. The co-ops maintain that Xcel Energy was “imprudent” by failing to follow its own supply plans leading to the utility having to buy high-priced gas on the spot market during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021. The four — Core Electric Cooperative, Holy...

Commissioners promise to 'scrutinize this to a degree we've never done before' ... DENVER — State regulators with the Public Utilities Commission questioned Xcel's proposal for an electric rate hike in Wednesday's meeting, following "unprecedented" comments objecting to the proposed increase. Xcel has proposed a $312.2 million revenue increase, which would result in an 8.2% increase ($7.33/month) for the average residential customer. The commission has suspended the effected date of the higher rates, while the case was scheduled to be taken up again to set procedures in early February. Commissioner John Gavan called for the commission to "scrutinize this to...

Democrat President Joe Biden’s “climate czar” has declared that the green agenda isn’t moving “fast enough” and warned global leaders that “everything has to accelerate.” Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Kerry issued the warning Thursday during an event hosted by the Washington Post. Nations around the world need to “accelerate” the transition from fossil fuels to green energy by “vast amounts,” he claimed. Kerry said that countries must ramp up efforts to meet green agenda goals in order to stave off the potential future human and financial impacts of climate change. The top Biden administration official particularly noted renewable sources...

Xcel Energy-Colorado has filed a request for a new electric rate increase, which follows a recently approved natural gas rate hike and a $182.2 million jump in revenue for electric service that took effect in April. The request submitted to regulators Wednesday proposed a $312.2 million revenue increase. ... Critics of Xcel’s recent rate cases have accused the utility of “a pancaking” of increases. The PUC approved a $64.2 million rise in the utility’s natural gas rates in October. Regulators slashed the utility’s original proposal by $138 million. ... If the increase is approved, the typical residential bill would rise...

Even Greenpeace now admits the obvious: recycling doesn’t work ... Even Greenpeace has finally acknowledged the truth: recycling plastic makes no sense. This has been obvious for decades to anyone who crunched the numbers, but the fantasy of recycling plastic proved irresistible to generations of environmentalists and politicians. They preached it to children, mandated it for adults, and bludgeoned municipalities and virtue-signaling corporations into wasting vast sums—probably hundreds of billions of dollars worldwide—on an enterprise that has been harmful to the environment as well as to humanity. Now Greenpeace has seen the light, or at least a glimmer of rationality....

Consumer gas bills will go up 2.9% in November under an Xcel rate increase ... Adding utility rate increases one on top of another is called “pancaking” and Wednesday Colorado regulators tossed another flapjack on the stack, granting Xcel Energy a $64.2 million increase in gas rates. The increase in the basic rate follows increases in gas rates for rising fuel prices this year and to cover $500 million in costs due to a winter cold snap in 2021 that sent fuel prices soaring. The rate hike granted by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission will increase the average residential bill...

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — Wildlife officers on Wednesday were tracking a mountain lion that attacked a 7-year-old boy and prompted the closure of a sprawling Southern California park, authorities said. The child and his father were walking up stairs at Pico Canyon Park near Santa Clarita around dusk on Monday when a cougar emerged from brush and bit the boy on the buttocks, said Capt. Patrick Foy with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Foy said the father, who was walking behind, heard his son cry out and charged toward the big cat. “The lion let go and retreated...

Two undersea leaks that began in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines were likely caused by underwater explosions, according to seismographic data. Bjorn Lund‬, director of the Swedish National Seismic Network at Uppsala University, told NPR Wednesday that it is “very clear from the seismic record that these are blasts.” Neither of the gas pipelines were active when officials reported sudden losses of gas pressure late on Monday, which they said could only be caused by significant leaks. “These are not earthquakes,” he added. “They are not landslides underwater.” And in an interview with Swedish television, Lund...

22,000 people lost control of temperatures in their homes for hours Tuesday.. DENVER — During the dog days of summer, it's important to keep your home cool. But when thousands of Xcel customers in Colorado tried adjusting their thermostats Tuesday, they learned they had no control over the temperatures in their own homes. ... Xcel confirmed to Contact Denver7 that 22,000 customers who had signed up for the Colorado AC Rewards program were locked out of their smart thermostats for hours on Tuesday. "It's a voluntary program. Let's remember that this is something that customers choose to be a part...

As many as half of British households may be facing fuel poverty because of the inexorable rise in energy prices, EDF, the French utility that also has business in the UK, has warned. .... The UK's energy market regulator Ofgem is set to announce the latest energy price cap this week, which will see electricity bills for millions of Britons rise considerably. The price cap, aimed to protect households from excessively high bills by capping the price increases that providers can pass on to them, normally gets adjusted twice a year. In April this year, the cap was raised by...

President Joe Biden responded with a statement after Thursday's night's bombshell development that West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin wanted to wait next month's inflation figures before agreeing to a deal with his party's leadership on Biden's key agenda items. With Biden on a trip to Saudi Arabia, the White House issued a statement on a day when several leading Senate Democrats denounced Manchin's move, which appeared to signal the end of many key progressive priorities on climate and other issues. 'Action on climate change and clean energy remains more urgent than ever. So let me be clear: if the...

Biden admin 'pursuing this green agenda at all costs ... Biden has .. yet to back boosting domestic oil production. ... In recent months, Biden has ordered three separate releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and issued a waiver allowing the sale of gas with higher biofuel concentration . ... Biden administration has doubled down on its climate agenda, canceling multiple oil and gas lease sales, revoking the Keystone XL pipeline permit and begging Middle Eastern producers to boost output. ... "This is an election year gimmick," Daniel Turner .. It has nothing to do with the energy industry, it...