For some in our state legislature, it's never a bad time to renew bad ideas. My open email to said legislators. And the media exploits Venezuelans too.
For some in our state legislature, it's never a bad time to renew bad ideas
I have posted in the past about ...
--Employer Trip Reduction Programs (ETRP). The details on these vary, but the essence is that the government either leans on employers or offers incentives to same to coerce/entice them into insinuating themselves into how their employees commute.
--Emission limits on indirect sources, i.e. trying to hold construction sites and warehouses responsible for the emissions from the vehicles that are drawn to them create.**
--Diverting more, and more, and yet more transportation money away from building roads to transit and multimodal forms of commuting/hauling freight.
Two of these efforts have largely failed to get a footing and the third is on its way, but still small(ish).
Well, for some in our legislature, it seems as though it's never a bad time to renew bad ideas. According to the Sum and Substance article linked first below, all of these ideas are back up for consideration as bills coming to the 2025 legislative session.
Quick aside: there are some committees that meet in between legislative sessions to discuss ideas for legislation and to start the drafting process. There is a special committee for transportation called the Transportation Legislation Review Committee. It's linked second below. If you want to see the full list of interim committees, I attached them as screenshot 1 and put a link to the committees page of the General Assembly if you want to find their webpages.
Back to the transportation interim committee. Showing his newfound zealotry for climate action, Senator Priola (the pride of his district and always working with an eye on what his constituents want) is pushing more extremist policy intended to reduce emissions from transportation. This would, the speculation goes, likely involve ETRP's and the emission limits for indirect sources.
Senator Winter is pushing for yet another reworking of CDOT and it's funding/mission to work in yet more carbon reduction by moving funding to transportation and mobility (and away from roads).
The committee will hold its next meeting on the 25th of September and they do take public comment (at the end of the meeting).
If you can make it and have thoughts on plans like these, sign up and speak up. If you can't make it, consider an email to the committee. This is my plan since my teaching schedule won't allow in person comment.
If you need some extra motivation, I want to point you screenshot 2 which is a collage of comments made by environmentalists and others who are fans of this kind of policy.
These are the things that the committees hear. It's time for some counterpoint. It's time they hear some opposing voices.
**See a pattern here and in the ETRP? Remember back to COVID? It's hard to regulate individuals so expect the state to work on individual actions via going after those that serve and/or deal with individuals, just like clamping down on restaurants to prevent people from gathering.
https://tsscolorado.com/employer-trip-reduction-indirect-source-regulations-back-on-legislators-radar/
https://leg.colorado.gov/committees/transportation-legislation-review-committee/2024-regular-session
https://leg.colorado.gov/content/committees
Open email to the Transportation Review Committee.
The post right prior to this was about proposed legislation coming out of the Transportation Review Committee.
If you didn't read that, go give it a quick look so you have the context.
In that post, I said I wouldn't be able to attend the meeting so I was going to write an email. I did. That email is below and I'll send it closer to the committee's meeting on the 25th.
If any part of the email is helpful to you in speaking up on this, please feel free to use any or all.
Speak up and get involved in this state so that the voices our policymakers hear aren't just the ones that reinforce bad ideas.
An open email to the Transportation Legislation Review Committee,
Hello to all,
My name is Cory Gaines and I'm writing (as well as publishing) this open email after having read the Sum and Substance article below about your August meeting. I put a link to that article at bottom for your reference.
In that article, I see that, though the year is new the policy is not going to be.
I see Senator Priola is making another run at what the author euphemistically termed an air quality effort aimed at transportation. If this effort matches earlier ones, it will do so by tasking unelected, and thus unaccountable, government officials to enforce rules they deem best.
It will do so by having the state government insinuate itself further into the economy.
It will do so by economically punishing companies who have the temerity to be in a sector of that necessitates vehicle traffic to their locations.
The overall effect being harm to our state's economy at a time when families and businesses are already having difficulty, on top of an insignificant reduction in the carbon emissions of one of the world's leaders on reduced emissions.
Remind me why this is necessary?
Reading further into the article, I see yet again there will be a push to divert money needed to maintain our roads into social engineering and climate change. Climate change is a concern yes, but to many people living in Colorado, especially in rural areas, the ability to drive the roads and keep the fillings in our teeth is a more immediate concern.
Shouldn't we perhaps put more time and attention into making the roads work for everyone, cars, trucks, freight and transit before we start tasking CDOT with climate change?
As I say above, new year, same unrealistic policy push by the party that has been in charge of the state for the last four years.
Cory
The media can be just as exploitative as any other group ...
I will repeat what I wrote in my Sept 1 newsletter:
"I have no idea what the truth is about Venezuelan gang(s) in Aurora is. I'm not going to wade in on that."
The reason why is that the world is complicated.
Some in the media, like politicians, let their desire to mold the discussion to their ends get ahead of what should nominally be their job.
The job that they like to continue to remind us they do. The one essential to our democracy remember.
This isn't how things ought to be and it's not helping us solve problems.
My recent op ed for Complete on media coverage of the Venezuelan gangs and Aurora ...
https://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/2024/09/12/gaines-progressive-press-bias-venezuelan-gang-story/
Related:
Some light reading, the attached picture is from the relevant sections of the Sun's ethics policy (linked below if you want to read in full).
Read the screencap, read the Sun article, read my op ed and then ask yourself whether or not you agree with Sun editor (now publisher) that the policy "speaks for itself".
Seems to me doesn't speak much about you if you don't agree with the Sun's politics or fall into one of their favored groups.
https://coloradosun.com/ethics/#:~:text=All%20paid%20content%20and%20advertising,integrity%2C%20it%20may%20be%20removed.