Pollution related to Colorado’s ski industry
Re: “Colo. slopes going green,” Sept. 3 business news story.
While it is highly commendable that Vail is buying wind power to provide all its energy, the primary energy impact of ski areas like Vail comes from the transportation required to get to and from the slopes. Vail and other areas along Interstate 70 need to get behind less energy-intensive transportation like rail to cut down on their impact. In the meantime, the ski areas and communities along the I-70 ski corridor need to provide extensive and inexpensive bus service to and from the slopes. Those who use these ski areas and profess to be concerned about the environment should take some responsibility for their own impacts by switching from SUVs and trucks to more efficient vehicles like the Toyota Prius. In addition, ski areas should consider adding a surcharge to their tickets that could be used to buy offsets to the carbon generated by the vehicles required to get to and from the slopes.
Tom Street, Allenspark
BLM’s plan for Roan Plateau drilling
Re: “Drilling OK’d on Roan; BLM plan for plateau carries restrictions,” Sept. 8 news story.
The Bureau of Land Management’s mission, setting out five years ago to determine the best management for the Roan Plateau, was to craft a “community-supported” plan. What the agency released was not that.
Recently, local governments passed another set of resolutions urging the BLM to manage these popular lands for other public uses such as backcountry recreation, hunting, fishing and scenic outings. Instead, the BLM’s plan would, according to the document itself, eliminate most or all of Roan’s current recreation. The plan notes that public comments on the draft “indicated a demand for undeveloped recreation settings,” and then correctly concludes that energy development will not allow for managing these opportunities, which would “not be preserved under the proposed plan.” These losses would be “permanent, even with the best currently available” restoration. Rather than provide what the community has consistently supported, the plan acknowledges the eventual degradation of all the wilderness-eligible lands and backcountry opportunities.
In the coming decade, projections for new wells in Garfield County exceed 15,000. Some 13,000 new wells are projected for the BLM’s White River Resource Area, immediately north, already more than 85 percent leased. Recently, the federal government has leased substantial roadless national forest lands to the south for gas and coalbed methane development. Local people need places to go on our public lands other than gas fields. Our wildlife depends on these lands, and our communities benefit tremendously from them. This is why local governments continue to lead the effort to protect the Roan Plateau.
Pete Kolbenschlag, Paonia
Denver’s tax proposal to pay for preschool
Re: “Preschool doesn’t need government,” Sept. 7 David Harsanyi column.
David Harsanyi addressed one side of the issues Denver voters should contemplate as they consider their vote on the upcoming ballot initiative for a small sales tax to support quality preschool. Unfortunately, he took advantage of his readership by stirring in less legitimate, emotional hot-button issues.
Roughly 10,000 children are born in Denver each year. Each child presents us with a golden opportunity to do something today that will make a huge difference for that child and for the collective “us” for many years to come. High-quality preschool helps children build a solid foundation for ongoing academic success. According to data gathered by Denver Public Schools, in grades 3 and 4, children who attended high-quality preschool programs were between 28 percent and 46 percent more likely to score “proficient” or “advanced” on the CSAP reading test than the district average. Compared to their peers, children who attend a high-quality preschool program are half as likely to have to repeat a grade, require remedial instruction in school, drop out of school, or end up on welfare.
The Preschool Matters ballot initiative is a step toward ensuring that all of Denver’s children can enter kindergarten with the skills they need to succeed. Is that worth 0.12 cents per dollar spent?
Kathleen King, Denver
The writer is executive director of the Sewall Child Development Center.
Difference in gas prices
I recently returned from a trip through Kansas and Nebraska. When I filled my tank prior to leaving Denver on Aug. 29, I paid $2.97 a gallon for gas. When I arrived in Wichita that day, gas was $2.57. I left Wichita on Sept. 6 and paid $2.33. I went on to Nebraska for a few days, then came back to Colorado, and paid no more than $2.58 along Interstate 80 on Sept. 10. When I got home, I paid $2.87.
How can there be so much difference between states? It looks like we are being ripped off in Colorado.
Alice Anderson, Littleton
Why keep Rumsfeld?
Due to the continuing mess in Iraq, Democratic leaders have asked the president to fire Donald Rumsfeld, secretary of defense.
So far, Bush has refused because, as Rumsfeld’s boss, he has approved all of the awful decisions the secretary has made – and how can Bush fire him and not fire himself?
The answer is honor.
If Rumsfeld had an ounce of honor, he would have resigned long ago.
As an intelligent man, he knows he has done a terrible job in the Iraq war.
The nation knows it.
The whole world knows it.
The president knows it.
Phil Kenny, Colorado Springs
“Special interests”
We are bombarded daily by candidates seeking political office with complaints about this or that “special interest.” Just what is a special interest?
Let’s get away from political rhetoric for a moment and recognize that everyone who wishes to see government do anything represents an “interest,” special or otherwise. This includes big business, small business, labor unions, those seeking change in health care or education. It even includes individual citizens who would like to see government represent the interests of all citizens. In short, everyone is an “interest.”
The proclivity of candidates to rail against “special interests” is no more than code for “those interests with which I do not agree.” A more reasonable use of rhetoric just might contribute to greater credibility. Candidates should be more specific and lose the rhetoric. Candor works.
Lawrence H. Kaufman, Golden
The SUVs of the bath tub world
Re: “Deep soak,” Sept. 7 Room story.
The article about the rising U.S. demand for Japanese-style bath tubs contains this scant one-line warning:
“Given their water demands , these tubs may present an ethical challenge.”
One would certainly think so, particularly in the increasingly arid West, where plains farmers are shut off from water supplies as ever-expanding suburbs gobble up water rights.
Perhaps the ethical challenge lies on The Post’s shoulders for uncritically hyping what amounts to the SUV of bath tubs.
The least you could have done is provide a sidebar with comments from experts at the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
They could certainly detail the effect that tens of thousands of these tubs will have on the region’s water usage as fashionable families install these behemoths because the media promoted them as the next cause célèbre of home renovation.
Just because we have the money to splurge on SUV bath tubs doesn’t mean we should.
William Autrey, Boulder
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