Bill Ritter works in bipartisan fashion, no one seems to care

When Governor Bill Ritter vetoed HB-1072, he wrote that he "vowed to listen to a wide range of views, to unite and to build consensus around a public policy agenda that speaks to the common good."

In today's Post, Denver Post Capitol Bureau Chief Jeri Clausing reports that "[a] bipartisan group of lawmakers turned that around on Ritter last week in a letter asking him to slow down and open broader discussion of his plan to overhaul the state's oil and gas regulatory agency." Not until the article's seventh paragraph does Clausing write, "To be fair, Ritter has reached out to stakeholders on all sides of the education and oil and gas regulation issues."

That's an understatement. Members of the Ritter administration spent more than 30 hours in stakeholder meetings discussing HB-1341. And his administration will "likely grant more than 6,000 new drilling permits, a doubling from just a few years ago."

The media needs conflict. GOP partisans want a fight. And some legislators have their own pet agendas. Hopefully the voters can look past the hype to appreciate Ritter's centrism.

Cross-posted at SquareState.

Good vs. bad update: Good appears to be winning

HB-1341 is defeating the doubters. And the Edwardses are beating the haters. But the planet is still struggling in a tight contest with carbon dioxide.

Opponents of New Energy Economy legislation wasting time

Governor Bill Ritter's New Energy Economy means jobs. It means innovation. It means a cleaner state. It means a habitable planet.

It also means a whole lot of whining from entrenched oil and gas interests and their friends in the legislature.

On Tuesday, a group of legislators led by Yuma Republican Cory Gardner asked Ritter to slow down energy legislation including HB-1341, which would overhaul the oil and gas panel. (Read about it in the Rocky or the Post.)

It begs the question, just how slowly would they like things to move? Climate change has been an issue for years. Decades, even. The effects are being felt now. We are lucky that Colorado still has the opportunity to seize a leadership position in the new - and essential - green economy.

Fortunately, the governor seems to understand this. And he isn't inclined to cave on one of the central planks of the Colorado Promise. A statement his office released Tuesday night reads, in part:

"My administration has made every effort to listen to the concerns of the energy and resource-development industry. We understand how important this industry is to our economy and the value it brings to our state. Our intent is to balance the extraction of resources with the concerns the people of this state have expressed surrounding impacts to our water, air and land. Over the past five years, members of the public have lodged more than 1,500 complaints with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conversation Commission regarding those impacts.

"By end of this year, the state will likely grant more than 6,000 new drilling permits, a doubling from just a few years ago. We will have received more than 33,000 permit applications. Colorado is in the midst of one of the largest energy-development cycles in decades, probably ever, and we must do all we can to protect the public's health and our environment.

"Harris Sherman, the executive director of the Department of Natural Resources, and other members of my administration have spent more than 30 hours in stakeholder meetings with the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, the Colorado Petroleum Association and others interested parties regarding HB1341. We have spent twice that amount of time on the phone gathering input from and listening to stakeholders."

Translation: "The oil and gas industry has been heard. And will be heard. And now you're wasting time."

The same could be said in our nation's capital, where for years oil and gas interests have blocked attempts to slow global climate change. Finally, the voices of science, progress, passion and optimism are being heard. One can only hope they are not too late.