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Unelected Colorado board tightens landfill methane rules statewide
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Unelected Colorado board tightens landfill methane rules statewide

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The Air Quality Control Council (AQCC) passes strict new regulations on landfill methane emissions. I wanted to update an earlier story about the unelected AQCC mulling rules about methane emissions for landfills. Per the Sun article linked at bottom, last month the 9 member board (with only 6 of them voting) finalized rules for landfills around the entire state.You read that right. 6 people on a Zoom meeting made decisions for you. 6 people who you cannot vote out.Since it’s a Sun article by advocate Michael Booth, there is ample space given to environmentalists with a couple words from those that disagreed tossed in, all of which I’ll leave for you to read over, but there are a couple details noteworthy en...
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Colorado ratepayers foot the bill for the “Just Transition”
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado ratepayers foot the bill for the “Just Transition”

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Who gets stuck with the bill for the “Just Transition”? You. There’s a lot of detail in the Sun article linked below about various communities and how they feel as if Colorado’s “Just Transition” for coal-fired power plants isn’t too just for them.I don’t blame them. With a vote and the swipe of a pen, Colorado Democrats have hamstrung communities that were built around coal-fired power plants in the name of their arbitrary climate mandates. Quoting the article:“Colorado’s push to close all its coal-fired power plants by 2031 — to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — is creating a major economic threat to communities that have relied on jobs and taxes from those plants and the mines that feed them.”*I will leav...
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Who funds Colorado’s legislative fellows and how much influence do they have?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, State

Who funds Colorado’s legislative fellows and how much influence do they have?

By Cory Gaines | Colorado Accountability Project Meet the Fellows SB25-309, linked first below, has lofty and not-unreasonable goals. Quoting the bill’s fiscal note:“The bill authorizes the Legislative Council Committee to approve agreements between the Legislative Council Staff (LCS) director and nonpartisan organizations to place nonpartisan legislative policy fellows in LCS. Any agreement approved by the committee must ensure that the director retains supervisory authority over fellows, and also specify that any work created during the fellowship remains the property of the General Assembly.”The concept is simple. We all have our areas of expertise and education, and we are all ignorant outside of those areas. Our legislators are no exception; they’re not super men...
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Judicial outcomes are shaped long before cases reach the courtroom
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Judicial outcomes are shaped long before cases reach the courtroom

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project A leopard doesn’t change its spots, Polis’ judicial board stuffing shows he doesn’t either. I thought a follow up on an older Sun article (see the first link below) would be in order. Let’s go back before going forward. The 2023 Sun article details how Polis has stuffed judicial appointing boards with Democrats and Unaffiliateds that (in a startling coincidence) donate to Democrats. I wanted to share an update on the Sun’s numbers from 2023, now that we’ve had about 2 1/2 years more of Polis under our belts. I also wanted to look beyond simply the State Supreme Court nominating commission that the Sun examined. The second link below is to the state’s website for Judicial Nominating C...
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Like vampires, much of the media fails to reflect
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Like vampires, much of the media fails to reflect

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Like vampires, many in the media fail to reflect. Somehow or another I ended up on the mailing list for the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). I guess I should take it as a compliment. Thing is, I'm not a pro. This is more avocation than vocation.I got an email recently outlining a program the group intends to undertake to try and improve trust in the media. It's a collaboration between the Colorado SPJ, the Colorado Broadcasters Association, and the Colorado Press Association which they're calling their "Journalism Awareness Curriculum".I'll let them explain it in their own words by quoting from the email."The goal is to train Colorado journalists to deliver presentations to non-journalists about wh...
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PUC clean heat rule sparks call for public action over rising utility costs
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

PUC clean heat rule sparks call for public action over rising utility costs

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Email the PUC about their natural gas rule this December. I wanted to share with you another way you can speak up to the PUC re. their Clean Heat Rulemaking. In addition to speaking up at their January 14th meeting, you can also send in an email prior to their finalizing their Clean Heat Plan December 22nd.I received the below from a reader recently. Quoted here with links intact:“Per the Commission’s usual process, any individual, stakeholder or organization may request that the Commission reconsider its decision on these rules. Such requests are due by Dec. 22. The Commission will consider these requests and publicly deliberate at a January weekly meeting. Any one wishing to make public comment or request ...
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State commission blocks bid to expand public review into minor business emissions changes
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

State commission blocks bid to expand public review into minor business emissions changes

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project New emissions rules for minor modifications gets (thankfully) voted down. There’s something noteworthy towards the end of the Sum and Substance article linked at bottom.** The part I want to focus on begins under the heading “A debate over minor modifications”. Don’t make the same (initial) mistake I did and take it from the words that the debated would be minor! The minor modifications here refer to a change in a factory or plant’s process which might slightly alter the amount of pollution they emit. Quoting the article: “APCD [Air Pollution Control Division] staffers, for example, wanted to change the current permitting process for minor modifications — facility upgrades at major-emitt...
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Were Colorado voters sold a bill of goods on Props LL and MM?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Were Colorado voters sold a bill of goods on Props LL and MM?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Sold a bill of goods on Props LL and MM? Part 1 The Complete Colorado piece by Nash Herman linked first below poses an interesting question with its first line. Quoting: “Were Colorado voters duped into passing Propositions LL and MM based on false information?”The answer is not a simple one. The question itself isn’t. If voters had perfect information, would they have voted differently? Was anything done intentionally? If there were omission/mistakes with no intent, how did they come about?Perhaps most important of all, what lessons can we take for the future?Getting anywhere close to an answer to the above will require three posts, all of which will be today. I’ll summarize my thoughts on the questions and...
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SMART Act hearings offer rare oversight of Colorado state agencies
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

SMART Act hearings offer rare oversight of Colorado state agencies

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project SMART act: speak up at state department/division hearings The Colorado SMART act (see the first link below for the bill) is the formalism by how our state legislature provides oversight of various governmental agencies. Reading through the bill makes me nod with approval while at the same time pegging my scoff meter. What I mean is that the language is lofty, and I’m not sure how much genuine oversight happens. The good news is that (regardless of the effectiveness of the oversight) a SMART act hearing is your chance to speak up if you have comment about a particular department or division of a department. I will use the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee as my example for this ...
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State accessibility law exposes gap between lawmakers’ intentions and local reality
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

State accessibility law exposes gap between lawmakers’ intentions and local reality

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project How is our state’s accessibility law playing out? Part 1 If you spend your days immersed in politics, things don’t really sneak up on you; you watch a bill work its way through the process, then get signed, then get enacted. If you have other things occupying your attention, say you have kids and a family and a mortgage, bills can sometimes be a surprise. The 10 cent bag fee is a great example. Despite lots of news coverage, you didn’t see a lot of fuss about it in the public square until the bag fees were enacted, until Wal-Mart said they were just going to stop putting bags out altogether. HB21-1110 is like those bag fees, though perhaps it won’t intersect with as many lives as grocery bags d...
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