gdp's Comments

Daily Camera.com: : Meg Collins: Time for a new energy strategy in Boulder - Boulder Daily Camera

Wed, 20 May 2015 03:03:31 +0000

Meg Collins, former president of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association, is against municipalization. Not particularly surprising.

Daily Camera.com: : Bulking up in Boulder County - Boulder Daily Camera

Thu, 12 Mar 2015 00:14:20 +0000

I love the concept. Please come to Boulder, I would definitely shop there!

Daily Camera.com: : Colorado House kills Senate bill to rollback renewable energy standard - Boulder Daily Camera

Tue, 3 Mar 2015 18:14:21 +0000

How would it make any sense to lower Xcel's requirement from 30% to 15% (for 2020) when they are already above 20% today? http://www.xcelenergy.com/Company/Operations/Powe...

Daily Camera.com: : Boulder to open 140-bike shelter at Walnut Street bus station - Boulder Daily Camera

Tue, 27 Jan 2015 04:36:07 +0000

The actual URL appears to be www.busthenbike.com.

Daily Camera.com: : Hackers take over Longmont Humane Society website - Boulder Daily Camera

Tue, 16 Dec 2014 21:35:32 +0000

They likely weren't directly targeted. Rather, the hackers found an exploit in a specific piece or version of software and automatically crawled the internet to find websites that were vulnerable. The Longmont Humane Society just happened to be one.

Daily Camera.com: : Savers unexpectedly closing Boulder thrift store amid property sale - Boulder Daily Camera

Fri, 14 Nov 2014 06:44:38 +0000

What a shame, my girlfriend and I loved to get clothes from Savers. Makes me thankful that Goodwill opened up at Baseline, I guess I'll be going there from now on.

Daily Camera.com: : Savers unexpectedly closing Boulder thrift store amid property sale - Boulder Daily Camera

Fri, 14 Nov 2014 06:39:41 +0000

The Whole Foods at Baseline & Broadway just finished their multimillion dollar renovation less than a year ago. I'd be surprised if they would throw that money away by shuttering the location, but I guess it's possible.

Daily Camera.com: : Virtual Editorial Board: Recent Boulder landmarks decisions - Boulder Daily Camera

Wed, 12 Nov 2014 23:55:56 +0000

I'm sure some will disagree with me, but the mission behind preserving historic buildings in Boulder (and elsewhere) is quite remarkable to me. What other objects in our lives are given local government protections like this? Cars? Clothes? Household items? Should we be forcing people to have to keep (and get formal approval to improve) their 1950s cars and refrigerators? How much land are we willing to dedicate to these buildings? In the year 2050, will 75% of our town be considered historic? These old buildings, like old cars and refrigerators, are terribly energy inefficient. Yes, they can be improved, but often the historic building ordinances specifically prevent the types of efficiency improvements that ought to be made to these buildings -- like adding insulation to the facade, replacing windows, or installing solar panels on optimally-oriented roofs. I mean, look at what they say on their website[1]: "the energy efficiency benefits often do not outweigh the loss of an important character-defining feature of a historic house." That statement is not aligned with my ideals. How are we supposed to achieve strong, progressive climate change goals when we have policies in place like this that discourage it? And the benefits of energy efficiency are more than just saving energy -- talk to the people that live or work in these buildings and have to put up with very uncomfortable spaces. I find it unfortunate that here in Boulder, a self-proclaimed progressive city, we have so many policies in place that discourage change and innovation at the expense of keeping things exactly how they are, or were. Apparently we don't want more innovative, efficient buildings, we don't want the population to increase, we don't want higher density, etc -- these are all bad and will have to take place outside Boulder. The bubble is preserved. I assume these are the same people that think cell phones and computers are evil, mostly because they don't understand them and didn't grow up with them and dislike change. Maybe we should learn to be more open-minded. [1] https://bouldercolorado.gov/pages/frequently-aske...

Daily Camera.com: : Xcel: City costs discount transmission concerns, rely too heavily on wind tax credit - Boulder Daily

Tue, 16 Jul 2013 16:36:28 +0000

According to the NREL website (http://www.nrel.gov/about/nwtc.html), the address is: National Wind Technology Center Site Entrance Building — Louisville 18299 West 120th Avenue Louisville, CO 80027 Which would mean that it's located in Boulder County. Then again, it's such a minor issue -- does it really matter?

Daily Camera.com: : Boulder Issue 2A: Carbon tax appears likely to be extended - Boulder Daily Camera

Wed, 7 Nov 2012 03:50:02 +0000

Once again, the Boulder voters have a very different opinion than the libertarians that comment on every DC article. Glad to see that this passed with such a wide margin.

Daily Camera.com: : Survey suggests support for new Boulder taxes - Boulder Daily Camera

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:52:10 +0000

The overwhelming support is specific to the FasTracks measure (69% for, 27% against). The slight majority is for general infrastructure improvements in the city (54% for, 40% against).

Daily Camera.com: : Xcel Energy declares Boulder smart grid finished, asks to recoup costs - Boulder Daily Camera

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:43:03 +0000

You can view the data here after you create an account: https://myaccount.xcelenergy.com/ On that site, you can find near-real time energy consumption for every 15 minutes, like this: http://smartgridcity.xcelenergy.com/media/images/... That being said, the interface is pretty clunky/confusing and it's limited in what you can do or see. Nor is there any way to download the data.

Daily Camera.com: : Boulder & County News - Boulder Daily Camera

Tue, 8 Nov 2011 21:53:47 +0000

She's been overshadowed by Ward Churchill, but Adrienne Anderson was a daring and courageous professor that was also dismissed by the University. She and her students dug up all sorts of information on local corporations with questionable environmental practices, all available through public records. See http://aaupcu.org/whatwedo/anderson.html for details. Frankly, these are the kinds of individuals that we should want as professors. Those willing to stick out their neck, investigate sensitive areas that are largely ignored, and push us outside our normal comfort zones.

Daily Camera.com: : RTD takes last look at cuts for Boulder County transit - Boulder Daily Camera

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:16:40 +0000

Superior gets additional RTD services beyond the Call-n-Ride service. There are a number of buses that stop at Superior on 36 (AB, ABA, BV, BX, DD, DM, HX, S, T) as well as the local 228. Also, the number of towns that have Call-n-Ride service is fairly small compared to the number of towns in the area: http://www.rtd-denver.com/callNRide.shtml. Does anyone know why some towns have Call-n-Ride service and many do not?

Daily Camera.com: : Boulder municipalization fact-checking: Final off-ramps for starting utility - Boulder Daily Camera

Thu, 6 Oct 2011 05:58:14 +0000

Surely you see the irony in crediting Xcel for these accomplishments? Xcel spends millions of dollars fighting state legislation and regulation. Then they are forced to add renewables to the grid, enact demand-side management programs, add emission controls to their power plants, and close down some coal power plants to meet CO Amendment 37, the Clean Air-Clean Jobs Act, and other legislation. And finally, after being forced to comply, they have the nerve to take credit for GHG reduction and renewables? It's clear Xcel would not have gone done this path of their own volition. They are an investor owned utility that makes more profit when they sell more energy, period. If not for the legislation and regulation, they'd have a tiny fraction of the renewables and carbon reductions that we've seen.

Daily Camera.com: : Boulder anti-municipalization campaign outspends supporters 10 to 1 - Boulder Daily Camera

Wed, 5 Oct 2011 05:27:27 +0000

I'm surprised you'd bring up Texas since it, in particular, is a state where deregulation has not worked well. You're right that only one municipal utility has given up its monopoly -- but it's because municipalities have fared much better than the deregulated utilities, so their customers want to keep their municipalities! And I guarantee you the rates aren't higher for deregulated utilities "because the populace prefers higher cost renewable energy". From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deregulation_of_the_... "During those transitional years some have regarded the unmet expectation of lower rates promised by deregulation as a failure.[1] Many states are now putting their plan to deregulate on hold because lower rates have yet to be achieved in any of the deregulated states. [2]" As to your point about the vote saying nothing about an agreement with Xcel, see my response to ctmulder below. I find this kind of statement to be very misleading.

Daily Camera.com: : Boulder anti-municipalization campaign outspends supporters 10 to 1 - Boulder Daily Camera

Wed, 5 Oct 2011 05:18:47 +0000

Come on. That is true by technicality, but misleading. I'll lay you 100 to 1 odds that if we vote No on 2B and 2C, we end up with an Xcel contract. Want to bet? Likewise, it's also true by technicality that if we vote Yes on 2B/2C, we only authorize Boulder to create a municipality but we don't have to end up with one. But you don't really believe that, do you? For all practical purposes, our options are municiplize (vote yes) or stick with Xcel (vote no).

Daily Camera.com: : Boulder anti-municipalization campaign outspends supporters 10 to 1 - Boulder Daily Camera

Wed, 5 Oct 2011 03:52:45 +0000

"The answer is to break the power generation monopoly statewide so every customer gets to decide what is best for them, rather than having someone else claim to know whats best for them." In principle, I agree. However, let's be clear: neither of the two proposals we're debating move us in that direction. We either end up with a city-run monopoly or we end up with an Xcel monopoly. You're deluding yourself if you think putting a 20-year agreement in place with Xcel will better drive us towards a free market. It's also true that over 20 states have adopted some form of utility deregulation over the past 15 years. Unfortunately, many of these states have seen significantly higher utility rates because of it. Rather than seeing competition drive down utility rates, there's been a lack of competition (coupled with rates not being limited via regulation). When you break apart a regulated monopoly, history has shown that you often still end up with a deregulated monopoly.

Daily Camera.com: : Boulder County group recommends allowing GMOs with limitations - Boulder Daily Camera

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 18:00:26 +0000

If you've been following this issue at all, it's not surprising that the 3 "community people" voted for allowing GMOs. I'm not saying that these people shouldn't have been on the advisory panel, just that their votes were expected given their backgrounds or previous comments on the matter. Here are the three people: Jane Uitti – Had the responsibility of drafting the protocol that the GMO TAC members developed in 2003 for the Commissioners for the 2002 decision to permit GMO Corn on BCPOS land. Dea Sloan – Boulder County resident who has worked as a consultant connecting agricultural producers with companies interested in agricultural produce. She had mentioned her opinion in a previous article here: http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_18815059 Jeannette Hillery – Agreed with the majority that genetically engineered crops should still be allowed on open space: http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci...

Daily Camera.com: : Boulder County group recommends allowing GMOs with limitations - Boulder Daily Camera

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:18:07 +0000

This is disappointing but expected, given the make-up of the advisory group. That said, I really hope this doesn't become final. I certainly would never have voted for increasing Boulder County open space if I'd have known this is how the county would manage the land.