Assorted snark, superlatives edition

• Second most dangerous organization in America: Progressive Majority. I know, I know. It made coffee shoot out of my nose, too.

• "Most heavy-handed" move by the state GOP: Threatening one of their own. [UPDATE: johne has more on this story.]

• Most successful state senator and representative: Joan Fitz-Gerald and Mike Cerbo, respectively.

• Most underhanded move by the Bush administration: Tough one, but last week's reinterpretation of the Endangered Species Act was pretty slimy.

• Busiest man in the state: The guv.

• Wonkiest greeting: "Happy Long Bill Day!" In vaguely related linkage, here's a story about Ritter administration budget director Todd Saliman:

"A budget is more than a spreadsheet. It's a values document, and where you spend your money reflects where your values are. That's pretty powerful."

Rocky Mountain High vs. I-70 congestion

The lyrics to our new second state song ask why "they try to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple more. More people, more scars upon the land." Seems like a good excuse to point to Diane Carman's recent column on the "unsexy" effort to find a mass transit solution for I-70 congestion. And to celebrate our governor's campaign statement that:

We must always consider the impact that transportation projects have on the environment. With proper planning, transportation projects and growth can enhance our quality of life without harming the outdoors. A perfect example: the way I-70 gracefully snakes through Glenwood Canyon. This project and its concerns for our natural settings should serve as a model as we look for 21st century solutions to congestion problems throughout the I-70 mountain corridor. We must design projects that improve mobility, honor the environment and protect the livability of adjacent communities. For this reason, I believe we need to preserve a transit envelope as part of a long-term I-70 transportation solution.

Critterthink on climate change

The Bush administration admitted that polar bears were endangered by global warming and the loss of sea ice. And then prohibited its scientists from discussing polar bears, global warming and the loss of sea ice. Huh? Critterthink explains.

UPDATE: Weatherdem weighs in at SquareState.

APATTW: Nonpartisanship update

The Denver Post reports on bipartisan education reform. And The Grand Junction Sentinel talks about a bipartisan bill that gives "surface-rights owners recourse against mineral extractors who damage the surface of private land."

What happens when the government falls down entirely? Since 2003, the amount of funding the National Institute of Health, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has cut funding for Down syndrome research from $23 million to $14 million a year. The Post has an inspiring story about a Colorado woman's efforts to "make Colorado the best place for people with Down syndrome to live."

Clean energy to help Colorado economy

Western Democrat reports that global warming will worsen the drought across Western America. What are we going to do about it? Coyote Gulch mentions Governor Ritter's attempts to "to promote renewable energy in Colorado by supporting a bill winding it's way through the legislature." Meanwhile The Denver Post reports that Ritter's New Energy Economy will provide jobs for Colorado:

A bill to double the state's power generation from renewable energy would add 4,100 jobs by 2020 and contribute $1.9 billion to Colorado's economy, according to a study released Thursday by an environmental advocacy group.

The study by Environment Colorado said House Bill 1281 would bring substantial benefits to rural economies while also helping reduce airborne emissions.

"More clean, homegrown energy means more jobs and higher wages paid for Coloradans," Gov. Bill Ritter said at a news conference to announce the study results.

State regulators "stretching the science and the art"

From the Post:

Dennis Buechler of the National Wildlife Federation said drilling operations are driving away wildlife, one of Colorado's biggest industries. "We want to work with the industry, but they need to come our way too..."

Ritter asks for protections for roadless lands

Lost in the news of Friday's veto was the governor's recent effort to obtain temporary protections for roadless lands. Today's Sentinel reports:

Ritter sent a letter Friday to Regional Forester Rick Cables in Lakewood, asking for temporary protections for the state's roadless areas until Ritter can evaluate the recommendations of the Colorado Roadless Area Review Task Force, which spent about a year taking public comment about the future of the state's 4.4 million acres of roadless areas.

The AP's story from Saturday reported that many hunters and fishers want Ritter to go even further, complying with Clinton-era regulations:

Hunters and anglers who were courted by Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter in his election campaign last fall are now asking him to throw out or revamp a plan his Republican predecessor endorsed for protecting 4.1 million acres of national forest land...

David Petersen of Durango, a task force member and Trout Unlimited staffer, said while the panel did good work, he hopes Ritter withdraws the petition because the Clinton rule gives more protection to the roadless areas and reflects what an overwhelming majority of Coloradans want.

"At least 90% of all Coloradans who commented in writing or in person said what they wanted was full roadless protection," Petersen said.

After the election I wrote about the "slow shift of business groups and Libertarians into the Democratic camp." And now the GOP seems set on alienating the hunting and fishing community. If this keeps up, the GOP won't have any constituents left besides Big Oil and gay marriage opponents.

Cross-posted to SquareState.

Stay inside and blog...

...because if you breathe the air outside you'll die:

A lingering weather system has trapped high levels of air pollution over the Denver region, prompting health officials to issue warnings to even healthy people to limit outdoor activities.

The 2007 federal budget: Colorado edition

Everybody (and everybody and everybody and everybody) has already pointed out that President Bush's new $2.9 trillion budget proposal funds a massive increase in military spending by cutting or underfunding domestic programs. What impact might we see locally? A couple highlights:

The White House's website trumpets funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, but in a press release, Diana DeGette stated that the budget may underfund the program by $10 billion, "putting the nearly 176,000 uninsured children in Colorado at risk."

The budget would sell off federal lands to fund an increase in national park spending. And it would cut expected funding for Golden's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. As Mark Udall said, "Energy independence is so critical to our national security, our energy security and our economy that we cannot afford to shortchange programs that will move us forward."

Cross-posted at SquareState.

What will climate change mean for Colorado?

Coyote Gulch pointed me to The Denver Post, which is examining what effects climate change will have locally:

Colorado's average temperature could heat up by 7 or 8 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, according to a U.N. climate change report released in part last week... "Areas that are already wet get wetter; areas that are already dry get drier," [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expert Tom] Delworth said.

Without buy-in from the United States, China and India, attempts to manage claimate change may be futile.

Center for Native Ecosystems petitions Bush administration

Yesterday Colorado's Center for Native Ecosystems was one of several environmental groups to demand Bush administration officials take action to address global warming. Read about it at Critterthink.

Meanwhile Wonkette points to The Guardian, which is reporting that the American Enterprise Institute has offered $10,000 to any scientist willing to counter the global warming report I keep blogging about. Coloradolib readers may remember AEI's memorable tagline, "Carbon monoxide. They call it pollution. We call it life."

UPDATE: In other environmental news, Governor Bill Ritter today announced a deal to lower mercury emissions. A press release states:

Jim Martin, executive director of Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, applauded the proposal. "This agreement will lead to earlier mercury emissions reductions than we would have seen from the EPA program..."

The plan calls for new advanced control technologies to be installed in 2012 at two coal-fired power plants in Colorado...

Diana DeGette reacts to global warming report

From a press release regarding the report I blogged this morning:

"Climate change will have a devastating impact on Colorado and the West," said Rep. DeGette. "Fire danger will increase precipitously. Reduced snow pack will hurt our economy which is so dependent on tourism, and our reservoirs will empty out. Water is already a precious commodity in our arid climate; we can't afford to take any more chances."

Friday morning finds world doomed

The global warming report I wrote about on January 20th has been released. Read about it in the Post and on MSNBC, which reports:

Scientists from 113 countries issued a landmark report Friday saying they have little doubt that recent global warming has been caused by man, and predicting that hotter temperatures and rises in sea level will "continue for centuries" no matter how much humans control their carbon emissions.

The scientists warned against the perils of defeatism:

"It is critical that we look at this report... as a moment where the focus of attention will shift from whether climate change is linked to human activity, whether the science is sufficient, to what on earth are we going to do about it..." [Ed. - Link added]

In what I'm sure is totally unrelated news, Exxon Mobil made $4.5 million an hour last year.

"It's all over, people! We don't have a prayer!"

Global warming real. And worse than you feared.

On February 2, a team of 450 lead authors, 800 contributing authors, and 2,500 peer reviewers will unveil the first volume of a four-volume study of climate change. The results aren't pretty. Global warming is real, it's mankind's fault, and the results may destroy much of the planet. The Rocky Mountain News reports:

All 23 models agree that the planet will continue to warm as levels of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases rise in the coming decades... [E]xtreme weather - heat waves, droughts and heavy rains, for example - will likely become more frequent and more intense in coming decades. Dry spells could lengthen significantly across the western United States, southern Europe and other areas... [E]ven if greenhouse gas levels could be magically stabilized today, sea levels would rise 10 to 20 inches per century for the next 400 years or more, imperiling coastal regions.

The Colorado and national Democrats are fighting for legislation that will reduce pollutants and reconfigure our economy around clean energy. This might be the most important political battle in America today.

Cross-posted at SquareState.

Bill Ritter nominates Jim Martin to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

A press release states, "Gov.-elect Bill Ritter today nominated Jim Martin, one of Colorado's pre-eminent environmental leaders, to serve as executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment."

Martin comes to the Colorado government from Western Resource Advocates.

Gale Norton finds gainful employment

Colorado Confidential reports "former Colorado Attorney General and Interior Secretary Gale Norton has found a new job." She's either going to be the new director of the Greenpeace or general counsel for Shell Oil.

BLM posts oil and gas lease sale info

I've written a number of times about the federal government's ongoing, controversial sell-off of the Western Slope. (Here, here, here, here and here.) Today The Craig Daily Press reports that information on a "quarterly oil and gas lease sale is now available. The sale scheduled for Feb. 8, 2007 includes 49 parcels covering 32,125 acres in Colorado."

BLM considers pulling the wool over our eyes. Again.

It's not like the Bureau of Land Management is the most trustworthy organization. And now it's getting even worse. A couple days ago, The Denver Post reported:

The Bureau of Land Management is considering a reorganization that environmentalists and a bipartisan group of House of Representatives members worry could dilute the agency's protection of millions of acres of conservation lands in the West.

The BLM manages about 258 million acres, and among its traditional workload are mining, grazing and timber programs, but it also maintains about 26 million acres under its National Landscape Conservation System. Much of that is in wilderness or national monuments and conservation areas.

The proposal would bring under the umbrella of the NLCS a variety of unrelated programs that, on paper, could make it seem as though substantially more money is being spent on conservation when on-the- ground spending is shrinking.

Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill also are raising concerns about the reorganization, which critics charge was hatched in secret and has had no public airing.

Meanwhile, the Ginn Co. is building 1,700 homes, a golf course and 1,100 acres of ski terrain on Battle Mountain that'll destroy lynx habitat:

Even Ginn Co. researchers admit the development will hurt lynx. "(The) project will result in an adverse affect to Canada lynx and lynx habitats through direct habitat loss and the indirect effects of increased traffic along U.S. Highway 24, which would fragment habitat and increase the chances of lynx mortality..."

Cross-posted at Square State.

Take a deep breath. On second thought, don't.

A state air quality panel had to approve tougher emissions restrictions on the oil and gas industry to avoid missing federal standards. Denver Ozone tells us that a "newly released legislative audit reports that the use of remote sensing to reduce air pollution from tailpipes in the Denver metro area is failing, threatening clean air and our health." And the Justice Department launched an investigation of the Minerals Management Service, which has allegedly been allowing industries to shortchange the taxpayers out of royalty payments.

UPDATE: Don't breathe yet. Critterthink reports Senator Dan "Climate Change Is The Greatest Hoax Ever" Inhofe "will serve as ranking member on the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, with jurisdiction over the Endangered Species Act and other legacy environmental laws."

Colorado Democrats detail New Energy Economy legislation

I like most of our Democratic officials. But there are a few that are jerks. So why the non-stop partisanship? Because when you elect Democrats, you get stuff like this:

Democratic lawmakers will introduce a slew of bills in the 2007 General Assembly to propel Colorado into becoming the "renewable energy capital of the world."

Legislation to double the state's renewable energy standard by 2015, mandate the use of ethanol in 10 percent of all transportation fuel - except jet fuel - by the end of next year, offer incentives to biofuel crop farmers and boost the number of transmission lines by allowing utilities to recover the money from ratepayers during construction are in the pipeline.

Renewable energy advocates say with the Democrats in control of the governor's office as well as the state Senate and House, the dozen or so bills - three times the number introduced last year - have a good chance of being signed into law.