Bobbe Jones
POWERFUL SOLUTIONS

Part two of this two−part series discusses the fourth project initiated by the city of Cortez to address energy efficiency and conservation while keeping the well−being of city residents in mind.

Bobbe Jones
Powerful Solutions

This two−part series highlights four projects initiated by the city of Cortez addressing energy efficiency and conservation while keeping the well−being of its residents in mind.

Seeking ways to reduce energy consumption and operating costs, the city of Cortez started with a basic project and moved to more complex solutions. An agreement to change out streetlights seven years ago was just the beginning. The city tested the water for electric vehicles to be added to its fleet, added solar water heating to the recreation center and will be energizing its small−scale hydro generation plant in April. These projects are part of a long−term sustainability plan to save energy costs while lessening the impact on the environment.

YOU ARE INVITED TO THE (11th Annual) COLORADO AIR TOXICS
STAKEHOLDER MEETING and SAN JUAN BASIN AIR QUALITY FORUM
Meeting May 6, 2010, 8:30 to 5:00 p.m. at the
Fort Lewis College Student Union, 1000 Rim Drive, Durango, CO 81301
Tours are the following day -- May 7, 2010
There is No Fee to Register

These workshops provide a forum for oil and natural gas companies to receive and share detailed information about current cost−effective technologies and practices to reduce methane emissions in their specific sector. Workshops are free−of−charge and all are welcome.

Natural Gas STAR will offer a Producers Technology Transfer Workshop prior to the Four Corners Oil & Gas Conference in Farmington, New Mexico. The workshop is jointly sponsored by Natural Gas STAR, ConocoPhillips, NMOGA and the New Mexico Environmental Department´s Air Quality Bureau. The workshop will focus on reducing methane emissions from natural gas production. Participants will engage in a peer-based exchange of technical and economic information on practices currently in use. Presentations will include detailed information that participants can use to conduct feasibility assessments of these practices at their operations. A wide variety of topics relevant to the upstream oil and natural gas sectors will be discussed, including: natural gas dehydration, compressor seals, plunger lifts and smart well automation, reduced emissions completions, partner experiences by ConocoPhillips and Devon Energy as well as an update on the New Mexico Environmental Department's VISTAS Program.

DENVER − Sen. Bruce Whitehead´s renewable energy bill passed its first test in the Senate on Tuesday.

House Bill 1001 would require the state´s largest utilities to get 30 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020. That is triple what the standard was in 2007, when Gov. Bill Ritter took office.

DENVER − After two sunny weeks, snow returned to Denver on Thursday morning, just in time for Gov. Bill Ritter to promote his latest solar energy bill.

Ritter noted the irony when talking about House Bill 1001, which would increase Colorado´s renewable energy standard to 30 percent.

SANTA FE, N.M. − Rancher Jack Chatfield sees untapped value in the spaces that lie beneath New Mexico's dusty landscape. But he said the state needs to first decide who owns them.

Scientists are looking at underground fissures and caverns as places where carbon dioxide emissions captured from fossil fuel power plants can be stored. Carbon emissions are among the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. The underground space also could store compressed air as part of a process to generate clean electricity.

Water supplies are projected to become increasingly scarce, calling for trade-offs among competing uses, and potentially leading to conflict.

Water supplies are projected to become increasingly scarce, calling for trade-offs among competing uses, and potentially leading to conflict.

The Governor´s Energy Office (GEO) has posted a schedule of anticipated American Reinvestment and Recovery (ARRA) grants to begin in January of 2010. The GEO plans to hold a webinar for each grant solicitation approximately one week after the official posting date. Note: the timeline is subject to change; grants may be pushed back to later dates, but will not open earlier.

Developers of the proposed Desert Rock power plant on the Navajo Nation reservation near Farmington have lost their bid for $450 million in stimulus money to install an expensive carbon−capture system in the facility, which would be the third coal−fired power plant in the Four Corners.

The proponents, the Navajo Nation and Sithe Global, in April were stripped of the air−quality permit they were granted in the summer of 2008 by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Green Party will screen "Fresh" for the public on Thursday, Dec 3, 2009, at 6:30pm in the Calvin Denton Room of Empire Electric on North Broadway, Cortez.

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re−inventing our food system. Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur´s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan´s book, The Omnivore´s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal−Mart dominated economy.

The screening is free of charge, but donations are welcome. Local snacks will be served.

Electricity took hold in the rural areas of Montezuma County when Lula Fitzgerald, a schoolteacher, submitted the paperwork to create a rural electric cooperative in 1939. Empire Electric Association was established on Nov. 9 and began serving the Lakeview schoolhouse and surrounding homes powered by a diesel generation station near Dove Creek. Since 1941, when Empire outgrew its diesel plant and contracted for power from Western Colorado Power, area residents have relied on electricity generated from farther and farther away. The spread of electricity into rural areas and the shift to large—scale electric generation and transmission were major developments in the electrification of the United States enabled by federal policies, and today we sit on the brink of another major transition in the way electricity is generated and used.

Along with drought and blight worries, stressing about future fossil fuel prices and availability keeps many farmers counting sheep at night.

Conventional farmers in the United States use a lot of fossil fuels, and not just in tractors. Through petrochemicals comprising synthetic fertilizers, weed killers and insecticides, fossil fuels can help boost crop yields. These practices allow the agricultural industry to grow food at low monetary prices (though not low environmental and health costs).

Genetically engineered crops have provided "substantial" environmental and economic benefits to American farmers, but overuse of the technology is threatening to erode the gains, a national science advisory organization said Tuesday in a report.

The report is described as the first comprehensive assessment of the impact of genetically modified crops on American farmers, who have rapidly adopted them since their introduction in 1996. The study was issued by the National Research Council, which is affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences and provides advice to the nation under a Congressional charter.

DENVER – A Germany-based solar company plans to open its first North American manufacturing site in Denver.

Gov. Bill Ritter and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper joined officials from SMA Solar Technology for the announcement Monday. The company plans to start production next year with 300 employees and a capacity to expand the work force to 700.

The plant will be in east Denver with access to Interstate 70 and a rail line...(more)

SALT LAKE CITY — Defense lawyers for a college student who disrupted the auction of natural—gas and oil drilling leases on land around some of Utah´s national parks outlined in court papers Monday a plan to put global warming on trial instead of their client.

"I think we've got very strong arguments for the necessity defense." — Tim DeChristopher, defendant, University of Utah student

The lawyers for Tim DeChristopher want to call some of the nation´s pre—eminent climate scientists to testify about what they said are the dangers that heat—trapping gases have in store for the planet...(more)

by Dale Rodebaugh
Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated; Thursday, October 22, 2009 12:01AM

Three events scheduled in Durango on Friday and Saturday are among 3,000 grass—roots rallies in 160 countries this weekend to call attention to global warming.

International participation in the Day of Climate Action has been promoted by the loosely organized 350.org — a group that takes its name from the recommended maximum of 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The organization, which claims the support of scientists, the governments of 89 countries and environmental and health-care groups, is a clearinghouse and information center.

The current level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 390 ppm.

"350.org just put the idea out there and invited others to follow," said Claire Ninde, who volunteered to coordinate publicity for the Durango events...(more)

NOW SEE THIS. Sign-holder accentuates the need to cool the coal-burning at Saturday’s rally in Boulder, part of worldwide "Climate Day of Action." At left of picture is Boulder Mayor Matt Appelbaum conversing with Council candidate Tim Plass. (Reporter photo)

Coincidentally, the crowd appeared to number about 350 Saturday as Boulder joined 4500 locations worldwide rallying in a "Climate Day of Action" organized by 350.org. The event included a bikeride by about 200 partipants to the Valmont Power Plant on Arapahoe Ave. calling for an end to coal-burning at the facility, which can also burn natural gas.

Then, downtown, speakers, including Rep. Jared Polis, called for strong action to resist further global climate change. ..(more)

WASHINGTON — The Department of the Interior has frozen oil and gas development on 60 of 77 contested drilling sites in Utah, saying the process of leasing the land was rushed and badly flawed.

The 77 government—owned parcels, covering some 100,000 acres in eastern and southern Utah, were leased in the last weeks of the Bush administration. But the leases were immediately challenged by conservation groups, and in January a federal judge blocked drilling on the ground that the Interior Department had failed to follow its own procedures for reviewing the appropriateness of lands designated for oil and gas extraction...(more)

DURANGO, Colo. — The sun had just crested the distant ridge of the Rocky Mountains, but already it was producing enough power for the electric meter on the side of the Smiley Building to spin backward.

For the Shaw brothers, who converted the downtown arts building and community center into a miniature solar power plant two years ago, each reverse rotation subtracts from their monthly electric bill. It also means the building at that moment is producing more electricity from the sun than it needs. ..(more)

Federal regulators have dealt another setback to the proposed Desert Rock power plant, sending the plant's permit back to the Environmental Protection Agency for a do-over.

The EPA had issued an air-pollution permit for the plant in 2008. But this April, the EPA asked the Environmental Appeals Board for permission to take the permit back. Desert Rock backers opposed the request, but they lost in a decision released Friday afternoon...(more)

With the passing of the Bush administration, Sithe Global has missed its window of opportunity to build the coal—fired Desert Rock power plant. Its Navajo Nation partners should recognize that and take advantage of what clearly is a better opportunity — alternative energy.

The Navajos are right to want to pursue economic development. But coal hardly is their only resource. In the 21st century, it is more a liability than a means to advance...(more)

Tri—State Generation & Transmission officials hope a $3.8 million grant award to study carbon sequestration in the mountains south of Craig is one step toward giving the company a lasting future in Northwest Colorado.

Tri—State invested heavily in coal, as demonstrated by the three-unit coal power plant south of Craig that it partially owns and operates...(more)

A team of researchers has landed a $3.8 million federal grant, part of the federal economic stimulus package, for a three-year assessment of the ability of rock formations near Craig in northwest Colorado to sequester carbon dioxide underground.

Team members include: the Colorado Geological Survey, Tri—State Generation and Transmission Association in Westminster, Shell Exploration and Production, Schlumberger Carbon Services and the Utah Geological survey. Team members will also provide $1 million in matching funds, putting the total project at $4.8 million...(more)

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department announced on Wednesday that it was ending an oil and gas royalty program that ignited a scandal last year when it was disclosed that federal employees had engaged in corruption, drug use and sexual misconduct with oil industry officials.

Ken Salazar, the interior secretary, told a House committee that he was phasing out the royalty-in-kind program, which is administered by the department’s Minerals Management Service. It allows oil companies to pay the government in oil and gas rather than in cash for the right to drill on federal lands. Recent audits have shown that the government has failed to collect tens of millions of dollars worth of royalties owed it under the program...(more)

The Governor's Energy Office announced today that the Four Corners Office for Resource Efficiency (4CORE) has been awarded a contract to provide weatherization services for a five-county region in southwestern Colorado.

4CORE will help income-qualified households save money on utility bills and reduce energy use by conducting home energy audits, upgrading insulation in homes, sealing leaks and installing high efficiency appliances such as furnaces and refrigerators...(more)

A new study shows that reducing emissions from coal—fired power plants and oil and gas operations in the Four Corners region would help lower ozone pollution levels.

The air quality modeling study was prepared for the New Mexico Environment Department as part of a long-term effort to inventory pollution sources and develop strategies for managing the region's air quality.

Environmentalists on Tuesday pointed to the report as evidence that the region — where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah meet — should focus on trimming emissions and developing renewable energy sources if it wants to continue to meet federal air quality standards...(more)

Cortez is powering up for the construction of new hydroelectric plant.

The city established a hydroelectric power enterprise during its Aug. 11 regular meeting and authorized loan documents for the approximately $2 million hydropower center, said City Manager Jay Harrington.

"Basically, we´ll be taking energy (water pressure) that´s not utilized ... to create electricity," Harrington said. "It´s a 20-year project to recoup money. But in 20 years, the city will have an asset as a moneymaker."...(more)

In an effort to protect the interests of Northwest Colorado’s energy industry, the Colorado Geological Survey plans to apply for a $5 million federal recovery grant to test whether the hills north of Hamilton would be suitable for carbon sequestration.

"I thought of the Craig area because the power plants and the coal mines are so important to the economy up there, that carbon sequestration could be very important in the future," said Vince Matthews, state geologist and director of the Geological Survey. ..(more)

A new study shows that reducing emissions from coal—fired power plants and oil and gas operations in the Four Corners region would help lower ozone pollution levels.

The air quality modeling study was prepared for the New Mexico Environment Department as part of a long-term effort to inventory pollution sources and develop strategies for managing the region's air quality.

Environmentalists on Tuesday pointed to the report as evidence that the region — where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah meet — should focus on trimming emissions and developing renewable energy sources if it wants to continue to meet federal air quality standards...(more)