Failed humor
The following appeared in the 10/29 column [Re: “New schools or a cup of coffee,” Weed Between the Lines]: “Sure, you may think your stoner neighbor is annoying, but when you realize his buzz is helping to build a new school for the kid who lives across the street, he doesn’t seem so bad (except when he mows the image of the Zig-Zag man into his lawn).”
Great message in the column, too bad it includes a failed attempt at humor that perpetuates lame stereotypes.
M.D. Coyle/via Internet
Cynicism confirmed
The Oil and Gas Task Force draft regulations failed to meet expectations? Whose expectations? Rep. Jared Polis? Rather than protect communities or the environment, he pulled his 2014 ballot initiatives at the 11th hour and sold Colorado communities down the river to ensure John Hickenlooper’s re-election.
Environmental groups? They’ve watched the Task Force farce play out for over a year now while people in affected communities engage in yet more rounds of hamster-wheel activism.
Local governments? As Boulder County Commissioner Elise Jones says, “Unless the COGCC makes significant changes and takes local governments seriously…it will be another disappointing experience.” A disappointing experience? That’s the best we local officials can come up with? How about an OUTRAGE.
In fact, the Task Force and the two toothless recommendations that came out of it accomplished just what they were intended to accomplish. In terms of “local control,” communities get exactly nothing — as was always the intention. The industry remains firmly in charge. And community members, intentionally diverted from taking action and demanding real democratic change, are channeled into “hearings” where they can waste time pleading to industry shills in front of microphones that aren’t even turned on. Exactly when will affected communities and local governments call bullshit?
When a system of law elevates corporate rights over people’s rights, the only alternative is to fight for systemic change. That means we have to stop appealing to politicians and do something about it ourselves.
In 2016 Coloradans must pass the Community Rights Amendment to the Colorado Constitution. This ballot initiative gives people, not corporations, the authority to decide how best to protect their health, safety, welfare, their communities and the natural environment. It allows communities to decide for themselves whether to allow corporate projects that violate the community’s fundamental rights. And it will force politicians to take a position on people’s rights rather than buying political cover with empty rhetoric.
Led by a grassroots effort of Colorado communities, workers and environmental organizers, the Community Rights Amendment brings power and democracy back to where it belongs — the communities where we live, work, and raise our families.
Merrily Mazza, Lafayette City Council, Coloradans for Community Rights/Lafayette
Polis still selling TPP snake oil
This past Monday (Nov. 9, 2016) Rep. Jared Polis brought his “dog and pony show” to the CU Leeds Business School. The idea was to promote one of Polis’ favorite causes, the Trans- Pacific Partnership (TPP). He made sure to have authority figures on each side of him, but only one side of the issue, for the presentation. Senior Economics Professor Keith Mascus was on his left and the U.S. Trade Representative’s Counselor Luis Jimenez on his right. There was TPP sales propaganda on every desk.
The event promoted TPP as an opening to a new “golden age” of American prosperity. America would be able to export lots more to each of the 12 TPP countries. Little mention was given to the competitive trade that would be arriving from very low wage countries like Vietnam and Malaysia. Nothing was said about the impact of TPP upon climate change, medicine prices, food safety and environmental protections or about the new powers given to giant corporations and private courts.
On the whole the presentation was a prod to get students and faculty to accept TPP as a great idea. It demanded next to nothing in terms of analysis by the audience. That, of course, is because the authorities giving the presentation offered only “TPP is great; we should all support it.”
So much for critical thinking at CU’s School of Business.
If you are interested in knowing more about what is wrong with TPP go to: citizen.org/tpp or eff.org/tpp or organicconsumers.org (search for TPP).
Tom Moore and Nancy Sullo/Boulder
The costs of not fracking
There are voices that call for no fracking in Colorado. This is lacking in vision — and quite frankly, dangerous. What would life be like without the fuels that fracking provides? An obvious thing is fuel to drive our cars. (There are only 3,100 electric vehicles in the state.) Then there is the rather important task of lighting and heating our homes. (Solar power makes up only 0.6 percent of electricity generated in the United States.) Clearly, fossil fuels and the fracking that supplies them are necessities.
In 2013, the Leeds School of Business at UC Boulder conducted a study on the economic impact of a statewide fracking ban in Colorado. This study was modeled to begin in 2015, assuming a 95 percent reduction of fracking. Below are some of their findings:
• The economic consequence would be an average $10 billion in lower gross domestic product (GDP) in the first five years
• 68,000 fewer jobs in the first five years
• An average of $12 billion lower GDP and 93,000 fewer jobs between 2015 and 2040
• Loss of disposable income drags on the consumption-supported industries, such as retail and real estate, as well as on taxes.
• Would leave Colorado jurisdictions with an average direct revenue reduction of $567 million over the first five years.
These findings are sobering. Why would non-fracking activists advocate for something that can potentially destroy the economic health of our state? It has been proven that fracking can be done responsibly and safely. Perhaps more people should spend time learning about the positives of fracking and oil and gas.
Rebekah Vicknair/Longmont
