Advancing Progressive Solutions in the Rocky Mountain States
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NBC has refused to run this ad according to Pickens. If you don't want to click on the link, you can just read the ad. It's pretty simple. A guy says:
"Get this one. Iran is changing its cars to run on natural gas and we're not doing a thing here. They're doing this to use less oil and sell it for $120 a barrel. We can switch our cars to natural gas and stop sending our dollars to foreign countries."
The guy talking? T. Boone Pickens. Pickens? The oil-well-drilling, oil company-owning, corporate raiding guy from Texas? The same.
Pickens says the executives at NBC won't run the ad because they say it might not be true. (And, of course, NBC wouldn't run an ad that isn't perfectly true).
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From Lower Downtown Denver (LoDo to locals) big oil's "Drill America Now" campaign is just faint hysterical shrieking in the distance. America's energy policies and energy perils are getting a much more sensible hearing here. The talk around the convention about building a solid future for the country -- one that's reasonable, sustainable, affordable and secure.
In The Big Tent today a panel laid out the challenges and choices facing the next president -- whoever that is, although the audience obviously leaned toward Obama. Bill Becker of the University of Colorado's Presidential Climate Action Project laid out options for the first 100-day of the next administration.
In the News
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A task force of 20 representatives from government, utility companies and advocacy groups took its first step Wednesday toward mapping out the most promising areas in the state to develop solar, wind and geothermal energy. The goal is to define "renewable energy zones," to highlight locations to identify the areas most promising for development and where additional transmission capacity might be needed.
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Colorado and federal officials sparred with environmental groups before a national advisory committee Wednesday over a proposed rule to manage 4 million acres of roadless forests. "The state of Colorado does believe that this is a solid, sound vehicle for protecting the state's roadless areas," state Department of Natural Resources director Harris Sherman said at the meeting.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_10049507 -
We spend billions attacking almost every wildfire, but scientists say that's bad for the forest, can put firefighters in unnecessary danger and doesn't protect communities as well- or as cheaply - as we now know how to do.
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New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has extended a state moratorium on new oil and gas drilling in the Galisteo Basin and Santa Fe County for another six months. Richardson's order bans new hydrocarbon extraction in the basin through January. It also directs state agencies to develop baseline air and water quality data for the "fragile and ecologically sensitive" basin and write new rules specifically tailored to protecting the area.
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An advisory group appointed by the Bush administration says hunters and fishermen -- touted as the nation's first conservationists -- ought to continue to play an important role as advocates for conserving wildlife and habitat. But the Sporting Conservation Council says conflicting government policies, dwindling interest in hunting, and growing threats to big game, fish and fowl populations have made that role a more challenging one.
It took only two weeks for a rainbow trout to demonstrate the value of removing the Milltown Dam outside of Missoula. As Western Progress' Pat Williams writes in High Country News , the trout's journey upstream past the site of the dam "symbolizes the promises of tomorrow," for Montana and the West as environmental restoration projects bring new vitality to western rivers, landscapes and economies.
Lee Metcalf died 30 years ago this month. His life represented political and policy "change" the very thing now being pursued by candidates and voters alike.
With momentum cresting in this presidential primary season, the watchword is "change.” In both parties the overriding theme seems to be how to make government more relevant to the lives of the citizen, and on the Democratic side, hundreds of thousands of both independent and younger voters seem to be propelling the candidates toward a remodeling, restyling or, perhaps, a revolution of sorts in the way the federal government responds to our desires.
By the end of 2007, plans for 59 coal-fired power plants across the country were cancelled or seriously delayed, in large part due to a rapidly growing weariness among prospective investors. Just when King Coal was looking invincible, the canary in the coal mine stopped singing and the big bucks began bailing.
Citing concern over the cost of future carbon regulations that are expected from Congress perhaps within the year, many of the banking industry’s heavy hitters have begun seeking more economically secure ventures.
However, not waiting for Washington’s inevitable carbon cap, three Wall Street powerhouse investment banks n Citigroup, Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley n have just released their own set of environmental standards placing the onus on utilities to prove that their coal-fired plants are economically viable even under future, stricter government regulations. This move stands to make securing funds for future coal-fired plants extremely difficult.