Just a few weeks after news of a former staffer to Rep. Scott Tipton (R- Colo.) joining the oil and gas lobby group Western Energy Association, an Open Secrets blog has the continuing tale of the exodus from HNRC member offices to oil and gas lobbying groups. Rep. Doug Lamborn’s (R-Colo.) legislative assistant, Mallori McClure,… Read more »
A new analysis by the Wilderness Society shows that Colorado’s oil and gas industry owns access to more federal lands in Colorado than nearly any other state in the Rockies. Their study finds that 11.8 million acres, (an area the size of Maryland and Connecticut combined) has been opened for oil and gas leasing. This… Read more »
Dr. Jeremy Boak, Director of the Center for Oil Shale Technology and Research (COSTAR) has been working hard this past year, trying to downplay fears about oil shale’s impact on western water supplies. And, while Dr. Boak has plenty to say, he fails to mention that the companies experimenting with oil shale fund his program…. Read more »
Colorado Congressman Scott Tipton’s close and questionable ties to oil companies have been a source of controversy since he was first elected. These include: His campaign contributions from oil companies; His financial investments in oil companies lobbying for the Keystone Pipeline – which he voted in favor of , and His ties to SG Interests,… Read more »
The nonpartisan Center for Western Priorities (CWP) released its new LookWest interview series, today. According to a CWP release: “Colorado communities struggling to balance their quality of life and local economies with industrial drilling and fracking operations are the focus of a new mini-documentary series by the Center for Western Priorities (CWP).” The videos include… Read more »
“Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.” — George Santayana, Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense Over the course of the 112th Congress, we stood witness to an approach to public land use that has swung spectacularly out of balance. Nowhere is this more evident than in the actions of… Read more »
On Monday, the Denver City Council issued a proclamation supporting the “research first” approach to protect western water, taken by the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) in its recently issued Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). By taking this action, Denver joined the list of communities throughout Colorado’s Front Range and West Slope that have publicly… Read more »
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced that as oil and gas leasing on public lands increased in 2012, the number of protested leases declined. Unfortunately, that’s not the case in Colorado. It’s just the opposite under Colorado Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Helen Hankins. In her state, lease protests… Read more »
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) describes itself as “a bipartisan organization that serves the legislators and staffs of the nation’s 50 states, its commonwealths and territories. NCSL provides research, technical assistance and opportunities for policymakers to exchange ideas on the most pressing state issues.” Affiliated with NCSL, is the NCSL Foundation which was… Read more »
The Checks and Balances Project commissioned a poll that shows high levels of support for wind energy and ratepayer antipathy toward actions carried out by Commonwealth Edison’s parent company, Exelon, to end wind power investments. The majority of respondents opposed ending the tax credit that encourages the production of wind power (54%), and opposition to… Read more »
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