Gov. Ritter Declares 22 Colorado Counties as Drought Disasters

Gov. Bill Ritter is seeking federal disaster assistance for farmers and ranchers who are experiencing financial distress in 22 counties hit by drought and late-spring freezes. The level of drought in these counties range from moderate to extreme, as indicated by the U.S. Drought Monitor. The affected counties:

Adams, Crowley, Kit Carson, Park, Arapahoe, Douglas, Kiowa, Prowers, Baca, Elbert, Las Animas, Pueblo, Bent, EI Paso, Logan, Teller, Cheyenne, Huerfano, Otero, and Washington.

Here is a closer view of Colorado’s drought assessment.

Emissions to be reported to CO Governor

In an effort to flesh out additional details of the Colorado Climate Action Plan, Gov. Bill Ritter wants large polluters to report their greenhouse gas emissions as part of a larger goal of reducing overall state emissions by 20% by 2020.

He issued an executive order directing the state health department to start drafting the regulations in the next 24 months. The order also calls for an evaluation to determine whether additional coal-fired power plants should be allowed to be built. It also asks the department to make recommendations on alternatives within the next year.

Colorado Legislature Work: 1st Week of April 2008

After a work induced hiatus, I’ve taken a short look at some bill movement and Colorado energy news:

CO HB08-1350 on Tuesday the 1st passed the House Transportation & Energy Committee unanimously. That’s important because that means there’s business hating Republicans that voted for it also. I mean, low- and no-interest loans to common citizens? There’s no anti-consumer catches in the bill and Colorado Republicans actually voted for it? The bill is moving onto the House floor, for a chamber-wide vote. Let’s see how many anti-business votes Republicans come up with then.

And to help out efforts like the one above, Gov. Ritter’s Energy Office announced Solar Innovation Grant Funding. The grants will go to efforts improving the efficiency of solar technologies. From the press release:

Under GEO’s stewardship, the Solar Innovation Grant will be used to support programs that can overcome financial, educational and technical barriers and lead to greater solar electric and solar thermal technologies in the residential and commercial sectors.

Hmmm. Making low-interest loans available to small businesses and homeowners to install things like solar panels while giving grant money to improving solar panel technology. Geez, those Democrats are just wrecking the government, aren’t they?  Keep up the good work, Dems.

An Awful Toll

Clinton Ahlquist, Jeffrey Avery, Dace Balcon, Ryan Baum, Scott Brown, Duncan Crookston, Christopher DeGiovine, Dustin Gould, Joshua Hager, Alun Howells, Jason LaFleur, Wade Oglesby, Andrew Olmsted and Andrew Perkins. All of these military personnel were killing in Iraq since Jan. 1 2007. They are part of the group of 4,000 Americans killed in the invasion and occupation of Iraq since hostilities began in 2003.

President Bush and the 30% of Americans who still support him talk about victory in Iraq.  What conditions characterize “victory”?  Because I don’t see how you can win an occupation.  Are there any conditions that Republicans can identify that would indicate to them it’s time to bring our troops back home?  If not, the troops wi’ll never achieve “victory”.  The Republicans’ intent is to keep American troops there forever.  Is that what Americans want?  November will tell us the answer.

Colorado Caucus Results III

98.97% reporting

Barack Obama 79,429 67%

Hillary Clinton 38,587 32%

Uncommitted 1,253 1%

Colorado Caucus Results II

9:58P — 63% reporting

Barack Obama 47,307 64%

Hillary Clinton 25,469 35%

Uncommitted 761 1%

CNN has called it for Obama.

*****

Update – 10:25P (85% reporting)

Obama 71,271 66%

Clinton 35,282 33%

Uncommitted 1,174 1%

Obama thus far has “won” 11 states – much better than what was predicted. California was just called for Clinton. We’ll have to see how the proportional delegates get proportioned out.

*****

Update 10:55P    (98% reporting)

Obama   77,997   66%

Clinton    38,221    33%

Uncommitted    1,230 1%

Missouri is still a toss-up.  New Mexico just started reporting.

Colorado County Results I

Barack Obama leads in Denver and Douglas counties ( not all the results are in yet).

He took Elbert, Gilbert, Gunnison, Lake, Montrose, Pitkin, Routt, San Miguel.

Hillary Clinton took Las Animas, Morgan, Prowers, Saguache, and not much else.

Current totals:

Barack Obama 17,674 65%

Hillary Clinton 9,256 34%

Uncommitted 360 1%

Colorado Caucus Results I

Got back from the caucus a short while ago – catching up on things via DailyKos on the national scene.

84 people showed up at my precinct, the fourth smallest out of five precincts that met at an elementary school. The auditorium was standing room only and people still bled out into the halls. I don’t know if anyone was turned away – I got there at 6P to ensureI had a seat. They had to reconfigure where the precincts met up after the introduction. Three met in the gym/auditorium (mine on the stage, which wasn’t the best scenario, but worked out alright). One met in the library and the last met in the music room. I have no idea how those two groups fared.

From my precinct only, Obama garnered 64 votes, Clinton 20, and uncommitted 1. Delegates thus fell into a 4-1 assignment. Jared Polis, Joan Fitz-Gerald and uncommitted fell into a 3-1-1 assignment (can’t remember the raw numbers right now). Turned in my choices for county platform.

So far for Colorado, with 13% reporting:

Obama 9,963 65%

Clinton 5,167 34%

Uncommitted 158 1%

Renewable energy in the news

There was a good write-up in Saturday’s Rocky Mountain News Business section about Colorado’s advantages and disadvantages in the developing renewable energy sector. Among the advantages: great location for solar, very good location for wind. It rightly recognizes Gov. Bill Ritter’s leadership on this issue by conveying his vision for possibilities in our state. More big positives: the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and all the research universities in the area (Mines, CSU, CU).

Instead of just blindly moving forward without taking into account potential stumbling blocks, the article also details some disadvantages Colorado faces: financial incentives that are unable to compete with Texas, Ohio, or Michigan and cheap labor. The labor part, as first mentioned in the article, fails to acknowledge the underlying issue: lack of qualified laborers. It does go into some detail on this later in the article. The article does go into detail about an advantage areas on the coasts enjoy: large collections of big cities. Denver isn’t all that big and there’s not any big cities within hundreds of miles of it. That’s puts us at a disadvantage compared to Southern California, the Carolinas, Portland to Seattle, or Texas.

Perhaps the biggest gear in this fairly nascent machine is the political will. I don’t think the article did this part justice. Without a populace demanding investment in research and infrastructure, Colorado wouldn’t be as far along the path we’re currently on.

One quick number to demonstrate what’s at stake: Spanish companies plan to spend between $7 and $10 billion in the U.S. during the next few years. That’s just one country. I would argue that Colorado sure could use part of that kind of investment, mostly because I imagine it would act as seed money. The renewable energy sector of our economy is poised for substantial long-term growth. Money spent and invested in developing technologies and bringing them to the market will only benefit us more as time goes on.

Can Colorado make itself look attractive enough for companies to bring their resources? This sector of the economy will be built, there’s no doubt about that. It would benefit the state if we can be nearer the top of that sector than the bottom. Thank goodness we have folks like Gov. Ritter and thousands of hard-working citizens who recognize this.

Cross-posted at SquareState.

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