More secret backroom deals with big business. The state is now looking to put more rules on "midstream" natural gas production. An update on my bee lawn.
Yet more backroom deals, deals where the big wheels get a seat at the table, but the rest of us (and small business), well, I guess we get what they tell us we get.
Nearing the end of April, Governor Polis announced yet another truce in the state's oil and gas wars (having previously declared an end to them in 2019 after the passage of SB19-181). If you didn't read or hear, I included a CPR article as the first link below.
Perhaps if Polis were a Republican we would all have read about the folly of "Mission Accomplished" banners and carrier landings in the oil and gas wars, but I digress.
The short version here is that the Democrats made a deal with their environmental base and some big oil and gas operators. The oil and gas operators swallowed a fee and dropped some of their ballot measures in exchange for the Democrats convincing their environmentalist base to drop their efforts and the Democrats dropping some of their more onerous bills.
The point here is not the deal, however. The point is what you'll read in the second link below. Shortly on the heels of this deal hitting the press, the Gazette had an anonymous source saying the following:
"An oil and gas industry insider, who talked to The Denver Gazette on the condition of anonymity to be able to speak freely, said many 'weren't privy to the conversations held between the environmental groups, Chevron, Oxy, Civitas, and the governor's office regarding this deal. We were also caught off guard by the press availability yesterday afternoon at 4 p.m., as were others,' the source said, referring to the press conference last Monday, when Polis and others announced the deal. Some critics said not having open public meetings is a bad way to do the public's business and that 'back room' efforts, such as the one that resulted in the agreement, have happened in Colorado before. 'From the outside, it looks like a closed-door, back-room effort, similar to the Clean Air–Clean Jobs Act, and it's not a good way to make significant public policy decisions,' said Paul Seby of the Greenberg Trauig law firm. 'It should be something that's handled transparently and fairly and not with quid pro quo trading of interest.'”
That is the point of this post: we shouldn't be conducting public business this way and deals like this fit a pattern in the Polis administration whereby he tosses small business under the bus in order to make deals with the bigger players.
The story above makes use of an anonymous source which I have to be honest I am (by reflex) skeptical of: if you have something to say, you say it and you put your name to it.
The thing is, I find these accusations credible here because, as I say above, this is a pattern for our governor.
He tossed smaller cigarette companies under the bus and undercut their ability to compete to buy the silence of Altria in getting Prop EE passed. That's the third link below.
He worked a backroom deal with Xcel on EV's and tried to hide his involvement. That's link four below.
Time and time again, we've seen how Polis brought back the swamp with him when he stopped being a Congressman and became governor. We have backroom deals with monied interest. Deals made in secret that we don't get to hear until their a fait accompli.
We do get to see the end product, but I want to take a second to remind you of all we don't know when Polis executes swampy, backroom deals like this.
We don't get to see who was at the table and who wasn't.
We don't get to see what was said and by who.
Not only do we miss, but the small business operations miss the chance to know what the governor may have done to them to buy the acquiescence of the bigger players, just like with Altria.
Polis blows lots of hot air about "The Colorado Way". I wonder if this sort of D.C. style backroom crap is what he mean when he says it because this is certainly a pattern for him.
Maybe we should call it the Polis way.
https://www.cpr.org/2024/04/29/major-oil-gas-truce-in-exchange-for-transit-funding/
https://denvergazette.com/news/business/secret-meetings-lead-to-bill-to-impose-fees-on-oil--gas-production/article_068b7c40-08e0-11ef-8ee3-8f8afdd6ce6a.html
https://coloradosun.com/2021/01/05/proposition-ee-jared-polis-colorado-negotiations/
https://coloradosun.com/2020/12/08/electric-vehicle-rebates-colorado-xcel/
The state is now looking to put more rules on oil and gas, this time on the "midstream"** of the oil production and consumption framework.
While Polis makes backroom deals (see the other post for the day) with big oil and gas operators ...
While he does interviews saying how miffed he is about ozone rules causing price hikes (sidestepping his own actions that made it easier for the EPA to bring the hammer down on the Front Range)...
While he does all this, his appointed boards and commissions will be making yet more rules on the industry.
Yet more rules and regulations to make it harder to do business. Harder to move product product in and around this state.
And when those rules make it more difficult on the business and require more capital and time, they make it so that you and I pay more.
The announcement of the new rulemaking is linked below so you can read up on it. I think I am going to sign up to testify at the Zoom meeting in the evening so I can remind everyone of the points I wrote above.
I encourage you to follow suit, either by attending the Zoom meeting or by sending an email. Boards like this need to hear some counterpoint, some voices besides the usual coterie of environmental advocates.
**If you're not familiar, see the attached infographic at the top and/or take the following quote from the link below: "'Midstream' operations include gathering, compressing, and processing natural gas. These types of facilities include compressor stations and gas plants. Midstream facilities exist in 20 counties statewide."
Garden notes: an update on my bee lawn and the longest blackberry runner I've seen yet.
Well, it's that time of the week again. Last post on Friday and thus something for fun, a curiosity. It will also be the last post til Sunday.
I wrote a bit back about planning to do a "bee lawn". Seemed to me to be a good way to not only draw in pollinators, but also a good way to cap off the sprinklers on the last little bit of lawn that I (used to) have.
In the meantime, I got the dirt spread out and seeded and now I'm busily watering to keep the soil moist while awaiting germination.
The process wasn't that bad; that is, I've had harder work even if this wasn't exactly easy.
Picture 1 shows my progress partway through sowing. I emptied the dirt out of the bags it was in onto the cardboard mulch (there to kill the existing lawn). I "de-clumped" the bagged soil and then moistened it lightly.
Then it was time to sow. What you're seeing on half the lawn here is not the actual seed, it's rice hulls mixed in with the seeds as (to borrow a term from automotive body work) a "guide coat", a way to know where you've put the seeds and how thickly.
I was glad for it. Some of those seeds were smaller than poppy seeds! No way I would've been able to see where I'd been without them.
Once sown, I raked the seed in lightly and then it was time to tamp. By lightly tamping the seed in, you ensure good seed to soil contact and help with germination. Pictures 2 and 3 show my little homemade tamper (along with a bare ankle to titillate the public and increase subscriptions) and progress across the lawn.
Then I watered again. And again. And again. I am not looking forward to next month's water bill, but I will be happy if this works and will make up for it next year with no sprinkling.
The last two pictures are of a runner that my blackberries shot out. I am used to them in the blackberry bed, but this little rascal shot out all the way from the bed and popped up in the middle of the salvia!
Quite a ways if you look at the picture where I zoom out. Makes me wonder if my neighbor's got some too.
Well, that's it for now. As the weather warms, it's time to start looking at melons and direct-sown things like beans and a new one for me this season--cowpeas (I'm betting on a drier, warmer year and so not going as big on cool weather stuff).
More updates on garden stuff as I have them.
Have a good rest of the day and back at it Sunday!
I am a big fan of Cory!