It's now Ag's turn in the barrel, and our governor strains at gnats and swallows camels.
As environmentalists have done with oil and gas, they're going to apparently start doing with large ag operations.
I've posted in the past about how environmental groups have sued the state of Colorado (in either federal or state courts--in the case I'm posting on today it's a state administrative law judge), because the groups felt that the state's permitting process was not strict enough. In the past, it's been air quality, oil and gas. I guess now Ag gets their turn in the barrel.
There is no specific allegation of pollution from any specific farm or operation, rather the plaintiffs, Center for Biological Diversity and Food and Water Watch** claim the state is not monitoring the permits it issues to feedlots and etc. enough. The administrative law judge agreed.
Now, to be fair to the plaintiffs here, their answer to the contention that the no one has yet found any pollution from a feedlot is that this is because the state is not monitoring individual groups. To quote the article linked below:
"Advocates can’t present specific evidence of contamination precisely because there is no requirement for monitoring and public reporting, said Tyler Lobdell of Food and Water Watch. Now there will be [with the judgment just rendered], he said."
For their part, the Cattleman's Association fired back:
"Individually crafted permits requiring more water monitoring would raise expenses and overlap existing rules, and the effort is just an extension of ongoing advocacy attacks on big animal operations, the cattle trade group has said."
Having looked up the Center for Biological Diversity, having seen them in multiple lawsuits, noting that neither plaintiff can point to damage from any operation, knowing that there are already a long list of regulations about water runoff from feedlots, and reading that the group recently won a similar suit in Idaho in the article, I can't but help see a direction here.
Call me cynical, but I can't help but think that the groups are doing what other environmental groups have made into a cottage industry: they're using the courts to raise the price of poker to make it harder for the industries they don't like to operate.
You know, 'cause trying to persuade everyday people that their agenda is the best one would not fly.
**Center for Biological Diversity is beginning to be a name I see over and over, clearly this group has a bent for lawsuits and deep pockets. Expect a post in the future.
https://coloradosun.com/2023/05/24/colorado-factory-farms-lawsuit-water-quality-monitoring/
Straining at gnats and swallowing camels.
Let me start with a quote from the article below:
"‘While I commend the goal of the sponsors and stakeholders, I am deeply concerned about the increase in cost for driver’s licenses,' Polis wrote in his veto letter. Polis specifically referenced a portion of the bill that would have increased driver's license fees for everyone to create the voucher program to help low-income families pay for driver's education and license tests."
I don't know about you, but I'm touched about how much concern the governor has for cost of living in this state.
The story is long and convoluted (and you're welcome to read up in the article below), but the vetoed bill was basically a mishmash of a couple of bills that started separately at the beginning of the session. One of the bills was on my list and I kept wondering at the delay. I guess I know now. I was definitely against the bill as it was basically just taking money from taxpayers to give to a relative few drivers education programs.
In that sense I am glad to see the effort declined by Polis.
Still a sense of perspective is in order here. Polis is not alone on the bridge defending us against a rampant number of fees and extra government costs here.
The size of the government, the number of fees, have absolutely positively SPIKED during his (and his merry band of progressives') tenure here. A veto here is straining at gnats and swallowing camels.
https://www.coloradopolitics.com/legislature/drivers-education-veto/article_221a6cb2-f678-11ed-b86f-43dc6532e651.html