The Sun's facile arguments about oil regulations and drilling. The bill to pack the AQCC is up for committee 3/14. The bulbs are starting to come up, but we still got plenty of winter left!
The Sun's facile arguments about oil regulations and drilling.
I forget where I saw it, but I remember a quote in an article (or an op ed) that went something like this (my memory of the quote, not verbatim):
When people look around at all the cranes in Downtown Denver and ask themselves, "Well how can regulations be hurting development? Why just look at all this construction happening right now!"
What they're missing is the fact that the kinds of buildings that require cranes like that didn't start last month. They didn't start last year. They started years ago. That is, the cranes you see today were on the drawing board years ago.
I thought of that while reading Mr. Jaffe's "article" linked below. I say that because oil drilling is not something that happens overnight either. The wells you see drilling now, today, were on the drawing board years ago.
So saying things like ...
"Adams County’s oil and gas rules are among Colorado’s strictest — and the industry is still rapidly growing"
or, as Adams County Commissioner Eva Henry is quoted as saying, "This just shows that regulations don’t kill the business."**
strikes me as incredibly ignorant and facile.
I wonder if it occurred to Mr. Jaffe, when pitching the idea to the Sun people, that he might perhaps check timelines on oil rigs permits and construction and then compare that to the adoption of Adams County's stricter regulations. How many of the wells in production were planned prior to the regulations? How many after?
I wonder if it occurred to him to check not oil production but new exploration (and to do so by the size of the operator--regulations hit different-sized outfits differently)?
I wonder too if he found something that differed from the narrative he wanted to sell, if he would have acknowledged it.
Just as it would be silly to say that any regulation is fatal and there shouldn't be any, it is just as mindless to claim that regulation has no effect.
A fairer and more balanced approach wouldn't have sought out just the evidence that confirmed what you already thought.
**A difference should be noted between "kill" and "reduce" or "disincentivize" or "drive elsewhere", etc. Do not, as Commissioner Henry does here, conflate the two.
https://coloradosun.com/2024/02/29/adams-county-oil-and-gas-rules/
HB24-1339 Disproportionately Impact Community Air Pollution is up for committee on Thurs 3/14.
I wrote in the past about HB24-1339 the bill that, among other things, "packs" the AQCC and changes rules on how companies can meet the state's air quality targets (if you want the context, I put a link to that first below.
That bill's up for its first committee date on the 14th. I am actually testifying on a separate bill that day and thus won't be able to testify on this one. I did write up an email on it and sent it to the usual suspects.
That email follows the bill link below and you are welcome to use any or all of it for your own advocacy.
The time to speak up on and fight on issues like these is now. Changes like those proposed in the bill may not make a big splash now, but what is happening is the environmentalists are setting up the pieces for future moves.
Speak up now while your voice has greater leverage than it will in the future.
https://open.substack.com/pub/coloradoaccountabilityproject/p/co-dems-put-forth-a-bill-to-pack?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb24-1339
An open email to the sponsors of HB24-1339 Disproportionately Impact Community Air Pollution and the House Energy and Environment Committee
Hello to all,
My name is Cory Gaines. I am a lifelong resident of Colorado.
I'm writing today in opposition to HB24-1339.
Let me start by saying that as a father, I am concerned about the environment which I pass along to my daughter. I am also concerned about feeding her, clothing her, and keeping her warm in the here and now. Both are equally important to me.
When I read bills like these, however, it seems like there is little recognition of this simple fact. Bills like these ignore the simple and undeniable reality of the world we live in: we will need a functioning economy forever and fossil fuels (plus the emissions that their combustion produce) for the near term.
Attempts to pack the AQCC with people that likely will have no concern other than eliminating the latter is bad policy plain and simple. Their presence there is a clear attempt to try and force the kind of beyond-progressive policy that cooler heads in this state (from both parties) have had sense enough to avoid.
We need not always choose between economic concerns and the environment--that is, it needn't be an either/or--but bills like this, plans to pack the AQCC like this, will force a choice and the choice will almost certainly be against reasonable balancing of economic concerns with environmental.
I ask you to vote no so this state doesn't become any harder to live in than it already is.
C
The bulbs are starting to come up, but we still got plenty of winter left!
We've reached that point in the week again, the last post of the day and the last til Sunday. That means something for fun and not related to politics.
The dirt in my beds has been warm enough to work these last few days and so I was out there amending the soil with some manure (good to have friends in the feedlot business!) and other things and then turning the dirt so that come planting time the bugs in the soil will have started their work breaking down the amendments and getting the nutrients free for the plants.
As I was out and working I saw that some of the bulbs and early risers were up and growing. In screenshots 1 - 3 you'll see garlic, chives, and tulips respectively.
Seems like no matter how thick the mulch is, they always want to come out way early. I'm not worried about the garlic or the chives. They'll be fine and any deep freezes will just kill off the bits poking out. I am a little worried about the tulips though.
Not so much that they'll be killed as that they'll not flower this year. That is, I've had it be that they got hit with a freeze and then ended up just making foliage and not flowers. Ah well, they'll figure it out for themselves. I don't think I have the time or the will to go to great lengths to protect them.
Meantime, the cacti know better. They're going to sit things out for a bit yet (as evidenced by screenshot 4 -- some rather sad looking tater cactus). Always funny how cacti look dead over winter. Really freaked me out when I first started growing them.
Years 2 and beyond you just learn that this is what they do.
At any rate, that's it for this quick garden note. How's yours doing? Feel free to add to the comments if you'd like.
Have a good evening and back at it Sunday!