White Nose Syndrome in bats likely ain't helping the harm from the wind turbines. I suspect Polis wanted to meddle, just not be SEEN meddling. Fool me once ...

Apr 03, 2024

The bat disease that will likely wreak havoc on their population numbers comes on the heels of significant harm done to them by wind turbines.

According to the Sun article linked first below, a bat was recently found in Longmont, CO with white-nose syndrome, a fungal infection that is frequently deadly to them. According to that same article, many of the bats native to this highly-spreadable disease are susceptible.

The second Sun article below details another threat that bats face: wind turbines. The same wind turbines we are going to forest our state with to help meet Jared Polis' goal of our state transition to100% renewable energy.

Which will be a larger threat? Time will tell. How do you balance the lives of the bats against thinking that we need to lower carbon emissions? Tough one to answer and likely 20 different people you ask would have 21 different answers.

The point here is that there is no choice without consequence. We cannot interact with our world without in some way changing it.

This idea needs to be foremost and fundamental to discussions of policy and one of the first things reporters need to ask.

A simple thing really: "if we are to do [X], what will we be giving up?"

https://coloradosun.com/2024/03/26/white-nose-syndrome-colorado-bats/

https://coloradosun.com/2023/09/22/colorado-bats-saved-from-solar-farms/#:~:text=Nine%20years%20later%2C%20the%20University,is%20approximately%20four%20to%20seven

I suspect that what happened here was that Gov Polis wanted to meddle, but didn't want to be SEEN meddling.

Not while here's a chance that, by meddling, he could have a success story to share.

The Steamboat Pilot article below details what the author (in being fair) characterizes as a "miscommunication" between the City of Steamboat Springs, CDOT, and Polis' office.

I myself am inclined to be less fair and evenhanded and I characterize it as another manifestation of Polis' habit of being a career politician, i.e. of making absolutely shameless and brazen lies a regular part of his daily diet.

Here is a rough summary of the situation (there's more in the article if you'd like details). Steamboat Springs has a new development coming in and they are looking to widen US 40 West of town to accommodate the traffic.

The city wants to use federal grant money to help explore and/or do this and so they wanted a letter of support from CDOT to send in with their application (I guess letters of recommendation are just for lowly college teachers like me to do).

The response from CDOT was (quoting the email Steamboat got from their local CDOT director:

"The email received in response, sent by CDOT Region 3 Transportation Director Jason Smith, said 'the message that we received from the governor’s office is that they do not fully support this project in its current stage of conceptual development.' Smith added the governor’s office stated their position that 'widening any roadway, especially one as significant as U.S. 40' would 'increase the transportation footprint' in a way that would increase greenhouse gas emissions. 'Before they can definitively support this project, they would need more information, data (and) analyses on how it will mitigate those environmental consequences,' Smith wrote."

Later in the article you read:

"The email from CDOT seemed to conflict with the governor’s past gestures of support for Brown Ranch, including a phone call he made to City Council member Joella West in October in which he called on her to vote in approval of passing the annexation ordinance without sending it to a voter referendum."**

A later statement by Polis' office is more in keeping with his usual "say nothing by saying it all" style:

"'CDOT and the (Polis) administration look forward to working closely with local partners to efficiently identify the best options for transportation connectivity to make this project even more amazing and accessible and avoid barriers to needed housing by streamlining and accelerating infrastructure access approvals,' [Polis spokesperson Shelby] Weiman wrote."

What I see in all this (and I remind you that it's my speculation, an educated guess) is that Polis wanted to get in the mix on this and do two things: get this development done (with lots of "affordable" housing) and do it without widening the road.

The Steamboat Springs folks seemed open to the development but were also wanting to look at ways to handle the increased traffic by widening the highway.

To prevent the locals from doing that, I think the Polis administration is withholding the CDOT letter (not necessarily a have-to, but kind of a have-to if they're to get the grant) to prevent the widening of the road. Hell, we could even tie this in to another item on his wishlist: passenger rail which runs through that very corridor. See the bill linked second below for how new rental car fees will be funding that very dream.

I mean, think of the political hay to be made here: I got a bunch of mountain affordable housing and managed to do it without new roads and got some transit up there too. I can hear the adoring sighs coming from environmentalists as we speak (and a Fox News anchor warming up to start softball questions).

When the reporter uncovered what he labeled a "miscommunication", and showed the interference, we got the word salad above from the governor. Polis wanted influence, but didn't necessarily want to be seen exerting it.

Context from above.

The first link is to my 11/5/23 post where I mention how Polis was working behind the scenes on this Steamboat development/annexation, and how it's typical of his career-politician style. This is part of the reason why I speculate about Polis as I do above; I've seen his style enough to make the claim.

The second is to a Sun story detailing how the annexation of the Brown Ranch development (which was forced into a vote and not just a city council decision after a group of interested citizens spoke up) failed and so it's back to the drawing board.

https://open.substack.com/pub/coloradoaccountabilityproject/p/how-does-aarp-pick-what-policy-to?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

https://coloradosun.com/2024/03/27/steamboat-springs-brown-ranch-annexation-vote/

Colorado Senate Democrats unveil their new “public” voting system after a judge ruled their previous secret one violated state law.

Golly …

—Given legislators have been in court more than once and lost more than once

—Given that they recently rushed through a bill (which Gov Polis just as quickly signed) to hide yet more of their work from the public

… you’ll pardon me if I’m just a touch skeptical here about their commitment to transparency and their desire to release the results of this vote to the public.

I’m skeptical that this new system will provide any sort of insight. I mean, after all, they could just have one of their newly-protected walking meetings.

I mean, fool me once right?

Colorado Accountability Project

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