Energy production is something we see politicized almost daily. Whenever we turn on the news we can see stories about foreign oil, or high gas prices, or problems with offshore drilling. Colorado is no exception to the energy debate and my district contains several coal mines, numerous oil shale wells, and potential for hydroelectric and solar power.
When I am elected, I will work hard to ensure we have a strong source of domestic energy production. I will work to ensure Colorado stay as independent as possible and is an exporter of energy. Each source has needs which should be taken into consideration by our legislature. I will not allow our public to be misled by fantastic stories or misstated facts.
Coal mines and gas wells will benefit greatly from my policy of returning control of BLM lands to state control. We see in the Constitution that the national government doesn't have the authority to own BLM or forests and my policy is to return them to local control. This would allow Colorado to sell back some of these lands to the private sector which would greatly benefit our mining and drilling industries. Companies will be more free to explore lands which they own or lease under a private contract. Regulations preventing them from polluting water and destroying the environment will still be in place. Colorado will benefit by having a more prosperous industry and having private lands to collect taxes from. State and Federally owned lands work the other way and take tax money to manage.
I will also work to ensure the Uravan areas continue to be open to mining uranium for power plant use. I will work with local authorities and the public to bring nuclear plants to our state and produce efficient, clean energy. France currently uses nuclear and has some of the best energy production in the world. As the son of a nuclear engineer I can say with certainty that when proper safety guidelines are followed (not building a reactor in a tsunami flood area, not building on a fault) that nuclear is a very inexpensive form of electricity and also quite safe.
I support hydroelectric power, but we must first protect our western slope water from front range interests to ensure we have adequate stream flow. I will work on incentives for companies to invest into hydro power plants and possibly retrofit some of our existing dams into power generating systems similar to what other states have.
Fracking has been controversial and everyone seems to have an opinion. Colorado requires a public report including the chemicals used each time a frack is done. I support this level of visibility into that industry. I have seen many studies about the number of chemicals found in the atmosphere after a well is fracked but they invariably fail to say how many of them were present before the well was fracked. I will require studies used by our legislature to provide clear before and after measurements so we know they are not biased. I also know for a fact that a great many of the fracking chemicals are already present in the tens of thousands of chemicals in the oil and I will require fracking companies to list them as naturally occuring. Studies on natural oil seeps have shown that most of the chemicals in oil evaporate into the atmosphere within minutes of exposure. I want the public to know what is natural and what is man caused.
http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/viewArticle.do?id=57272
I do not support wind power. I have thoroughly studied all sides of this and feel the public has been grossly misled. All wind farms which I have studied have taken more electricity and BTUs of other forms of energy to build than they will ever produce. Some of the elements in the high efficiency generators create extreme environmental hazards when mined. When the wind does not blow, they need a backup coal, gas, or nuclear plant to produce electricity. Turning these plants on and off as needed is extremely inefficient and has led to major increases in pollution already compared to the baseline numbers when they are running at peak power. The only reason the following report is controversial is that it doesn't line up with what our consumers have been trained to believe. It claims that wind produces zero pollution but, as I mentioned earlier, we still have to mine materials to build the wind turbines and that does take energy and cause pollution. Another problem with wind power is the sheer size of the farms. Those farms displace our valuable agriculture and drive our food production to other countries acre by acre.
http://www.consumerenergyreport.com/2010/04/21/controversial-report-wind-energy-causes-pollution/
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