Opponents of a bill that would overhaul how oil and gas are regulated in Colorado charge that the legislation is being rushed through the legislature. Josh Joswick’s reaction: Thirty years isn’t rushing it. Joswick, a former three-term La Plata County commissioner, was among nearly 200 people who spoke during a 12-hour hearing by the Senate Transportation and Energy Committee on March 5. Joswick told the committee that Senate Bill 19-181 was a long time coming. “Since 1990, people have been coming to this legislature to try and achieve oil and gas policy reform,” Joswick said. “Senate Bill 181 is as comprehensive and beneficial piece of legislation that it has been my experience to testify on, and that spans that 30-year period.” If something like SB 181 had been in place when La Plata County became the first in the state to adopt local oil and gas regulations, the county might not have had to fight the battles it did, Joswick said. The … [Read more...] about Local elected officials decry, welcome bill overhauling regulation of Colorado’s oil and gas industry
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Colorado congressmen want to help NASA take longer missions to faraway spots
Space travelers tapping natural resources on the moon and other planets to survive isn’t just the stuff of novels or movies. It’s the subject of serious study by NASA and researchers, and has an entire program devoted to it at Colorado School of Mines. Now, Rep. Scott Tipton of Colorado has introduced a bill in Congress to take steps that could create an institute dedicated to research into what natural resources in outer space could be used by astronauts on long missions to faraway spots. The bill introduced Thursday and co-sponsored by fellow Colorado Rep. Ed Perlmutter would direct NASA to study the idea and submit a report to Congress in six months. The Space Resources Institute Act is intended to support plans for space missions that will be longer in duration and distance, Tipton said. The goals are to identify minerals, water sources and other materials on asteroids or planets that crews could use to supplement their supplies and develop the technology to put … [Read more...] about Colorado congressmen want to help NASA take longer missions to faraway spots
Colorado Springs credit union executive retiring after winning nearly every major business award
Barb Winter thought her career in personnel at Colorado Interstate Gas Co. might end before it ever started.Just after Winter interned and then accepted a job at CIG in 1972, Houston-based energy giant Coastal Corp. approached the company about merging. CIG rejected the offer, but Coastal then launched a hostile and eventually successful takeover, and Winter thought the newest employees would quickly be shown the door."I knew nothing about the business. I had been recruited for the job because of the internship and I didn't get any other job offers because we were in the middle of an economic downturn," Winter said. "I was pretty green during the takeover and people seem to go easily during those types of situations."Instead, Winter, now 68, would spend 29 years with CIG and later add safety, administrative services, audio-visual, building management, the mail room and even the company's aviation department to her management responsibilities."I have been able to survive and gain more … [Read more...] about Colorado Springs credit union executive retiring after winning nearly every major business award
Outgoing U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman moves on from Congress and Trump
Vietnam-era Navy veteran Patrick Flesher from Buena Vista lit up with excitement when he recognized U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman in the lobby of the new Rocky Mountain Regional Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Aurora.“I thought you’d be taller,” said Flesher, squeezing and shaking his fellow veteran’s hand. “You look bigger on TV.”It helps to have a veteran working on veterans issues in Washington, Flesher said, “because they know what it’s like.”He doesn’t live in Coffman’s 6th Congressional District in the Denver suburbs, but Flesher said he would vote for Coffman for governor and maybe even for president.Dressed in a military green sweater with a Marine Corps insignia over his heart, Coffman found warmth to spare on a cold day after he took the first defeat of his 30-year political career, interspersed with decades of military duty.After a decade in Washington, Coffman tells Colorado Politics he won’t be going back. … [Read more...] about Outgoing U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman moves on from Congress and Trump
“Let’s get real, guys”: Oil and gas rules front and center for Colorado lawmakers following Prop 112’s defeat
The fight over the highly charged Proposition 112 oil and gas setbacks measure may be over, but the larger battle over how tightly to regulate the energy sector in Colorado is still in full rage. With voters on Tuesday painting both chambers of the legislature blue and the election of Democrat Jared Polis to the governor’s mansion, state Rep. KC Becker said the de facto veto power the oil and gas industry has held over proposed regulatory bills via the GOP-controlled Senate is now gone. Becker, selected last week as Democrats’ next speaker of the Colorado House, said her message to the oil and gas industry for the upcoming legislative session is simple and direct: “Let’s get real, guys.” “I’m not looking to drive out the industry from the state, but we have to respond to the need of communities so they feel safer,” said Becker, who was one of the only Democratic officials to back Prop 112. “If we don’t do something at the … [Read more...] about “Let’s get real, guys”: Oil and gas rules front and center for Colorado lawmakers following Prop 112’s defeat