
I-25 tolling means more choices, less congestion in Northern Colorado
We all understand that if you offer something for free that really has a cost, demand will exceed supply.
We all understand that if you offer something for free that really has a cost, demand will exceed supply.
The Republicans challenging Hickenlooper this fall could use red-light cameras as a campaign issue — unless they too are more swayed by municipal revenues than due process and civil rights.
In the end, living in low-density areas is just as valid a choice as living in more compact areas. Failing to see the costs of regulations imposing compact living on people is also choice. The authors of this report have chosen to put on blinders allowing them to ignore housing costs and transit subsidies in order to make their choices appear morally superior.
Ali Vazir, a supporter of UberX, accused the cab companies of charging their drivers “exuberant” lease rates. It was a happy instance where the wrong word was better than the right one.
In states like Texas and New Jersey (plus Arizona, Virginia and Maryland), you can still buy a Tesla but the lengthy process must be handled as an out-of-state transaction. In these states, Tesla maintains “galleries” where the car is on exhibit, but the attendants can’t take you on a test drive, help you with the transaction and financing or even quote you a price.
In states like Texas and New Jersey (plus Arizona, Virginia and Maryland), you can still buy a Tesla but the lengthy process must be handled as an out-of-state transaction. In these states, Tesla maintains “galleries” where the car is on exhibit, but the attendants can’t take you on a test drive, help you with the transaction and financing or even quote you a price.
What the president really wants is more grant programs like TIGER, which allow the Department of Transportation to both reward the president’s political supporters and support social-engineering projects such as streetcars and transit-oriented development. TIGER and similar grant making programs are not about transportation; they are about political pork barrel.
You could hardly buy an environmental impact statement today for the $6.3 million the Colorado Highway Department spent on the land, labor, bulldozers, concrete, rebars and bridges needed for the
You could hardly buy an environmental impact statement today for the $6.3 million the Colorado Highway Department spent on the land, labor, bulldozers, concrete, rebars and bridges needed for the
In one case, someone who was commuting to work by bus for $2.25 per trip now has to pay $4.00 per trip to take the light rail, a 78 percent increase in cost. 9to5 points out that the cost of gasoline to drive the same distance would be about $1.25.
Such bills are invariably promoted as an effort to “protect the public” from bad practitioners, but the real effect is to limit competition by making it harder to enter the field, and thus drive up prices.
Such bills are invariably promoted as an effort to “protect the public” from bad practitioners, but the real effect is to limit competition by making it harder to enter the field, and thus drive up prices.
By Jon Caldara
In a previous life I was on the Regional Transportation District (RTD) board of directors. This elected position paid a whopping $250 a month but it did include a free bus pass. And let me tell you, the ladies dig a man with a bus pass.
In 1997 RTD (actually, the bond dealers and contractors who run RTD) were trying to con the voters into a massive tax increase to buy a trolley system so bond dealers and contractors would make a killing from the boondoggle. The board was split on this idea, with a slight majority bending a knee to their crony overlords.
Denver’s municipal Channel 8 brought forward an interesting proposal: at no cost to RTD they’d televise our board meetings. Awesome.
Given smaller governments, from town councils to school boards, broadcast their public meetings, this was a no-brainer for RTD, the fourth largest government in the state. Let the people see the people’s business.
The RTD board rejected the proposal. The very same directors who voted “yes” for the tax increase voted “no” to broadcasting their behavior at public meetings.
They knew full well if voters saw the dysfunction and ineptitude of the board, they’d never vote to give these clowns more of their money.
More than a quarter-century later, the very same dynamic plays out with the clown show that is our state Legislature.
Colorado is only one of two states that don’t livestream committee meetings.
Colorado is a big freaking state, bigger in land mass than the United Kingdom. If citizens in Durango wish to witness their representatives in action, they must drive 350 miles to do so. This is so far that their soon-to-bemandated electric vehicles will need to charge overnight somewhere along the route.
When the House or Senate meet in full, in the big chambers, well, that’s streamed live on ColoradoChannel.net. And that’s fine, but that’s not where the real deal-making of governing happens. That happens in committee meetings.
Both chambers have 10 committees each that decide the fate of legislation before it goes to either floor for a vote. Beyond that there are 15 year-round committees and another 14 interim committees. What goes on in these 49 committees constitutes the overwhelming majority of decision making at the Capitol. And you must be in-person if you want to see it.
Let me amend that: Every committee room in the Capitol is equipped with video cameras and large TV monitors. If you wish to testify in one of those committees, assuming they allow testimony, you can sign up to do so online.
Post COVID, we all understand how Zoom works, even our legislators. So, the only way to remotely witness government in action is to give testimony online. Only then can you see the whole thing remotely. But you must testify and not all meetings have testimony
This Zoom participation proves live streaming these meetings is just a matter of flipping a switch to make public what only that handful of people online can see now.
Bart Miller, the chairman of the Colorado Channel Authority, the entity created by state government to broadcast video of the House and Senate (but only the big chambers), says they lobbied in vain to let them flip that switch on for years and years and years.
And get this, it doesn’t take a vote of the full House and Senate, they just need the OK from one of those committees they’re not allowed to broadcast on Zoom. The Executive Committee of the Legislative Council is made of legislative leadership — Senate President James Coleman, Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie and the minority and majority leaders of both houses.
If you’re keeping score at home that’s four Democrats and two Republicans (who have no problem flipping the Zoom switch to “public”).
And here’s the cherry on top: since the late 1960s legislative staff must keep an audio recording of all these committee meetings.
Bart Miller of the Colorado Channel Authority tells me his governmental authority would be happy to disband all together and go away if legislative staff flipped the video switches on along with the audio switch they already run.
When was the last time a governmental authority suggested its own demise to throw some sunlight into some of the government’s darkest rooms?
What are they hiding?
As Colorado considers nuclear energy as an option, what happens with the nuclear waste? Where would it go and how much would there be? PowerGab Hosts Jake Fogleman and Amy Cooke discuss this and more.
Show Notes:
Nuclear storage plans in Northwestern Colorado
https://coloradosun.com/2025/01/18/nuclear-waste-storage-colorado-rio-blanco-county-rangely/
https://coloradosun.com/2025/01/29/nuclear-waste-storage-hayden-routt-county/
Chris Wright Lays Out DOE Priorities
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/doe-energy-baseload-generation-nuclear-transmission-wright/739412/
Are Coloradans experiencing buyers remorse when it comes to releasing killer wolves into our backcountry? County Commissioner Stan VanderWerf details the reality of dropping foreign apex predators into our ecosystem and the effort to reverse it.