A slam dunk for energy transition

We sometimes have pivots, long in the making but de ned by moments.

ey occurred both in basketball and in Colorado energy on May 22.

In basketball, Nicola Jokic and the Nuggets dethroned the King, as LeBron James has long been known, and his Los Angeles Lakers. e Nuggets de ed Vegas oddsmakers but their ascendancy was in plain view for four years. is will be team’s rst nals appearance since entering the NBA in 1976.

In 1977, Colorado gained a national research laboratory, then called the Solar Energy Research Institute. Later renamed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL has expanded its missions to gain energy self-su ciency. President Donald Trump in 2017 wanted to slash its budget. Congress refused.

Now, Congress has given NREL an-

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To subscribe call 303-566-4100 other $150 million in a special allocation. One result among several will be a new research facility focused on creating bioenergy capable of fueling airplanes. Commercial airplanes and large business jets account for 3% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EPA. In Aspen and Vail, I suspect it’s far higher. If batteries can power cars, buses, and even small aircraft, they’re heavy for longdistance air travel. Other solutions must be pursued. at leaves us at the intersection of uncertainty and exciting opportunities. We still don’t know how exactly we will reach 100% emissions-free electricity nor how we can end emissions from long-haul transportation, concrete production and some other sectors.

Solar similarly once seemed like a long reach. Panels have become ubiquitous, and we’re just getting started in Colorado, owing in part to the seeds planted at NREL more than 40 years ago. By decade’s end, Colorado will almost certainly be at 80% renewable energy for our electrical generation and likely higher in some places.

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At the NREL campus on Monday, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper captured the essence. “ e future is now,” he said. “In 50 years, we’re going to look back on what’s happening in the next few years as part of this great transition where the world we knew gets left behind.” at change, he acknowledged, will involve loss, a reference to the fossil fuel sectors being displaced. “We have to process that. But we don’t have too much time to spend mourning. We gotta move forward, because the future is now.”

Soon after, tours were conducted of the Research and Integration Laboratory, called RAIL. It will pursue answers to the riddle of plastic recycling to help curtail consumption of fossil fuels. e lab was designed to be exible, though, to help solve other questions as they arise.

An hour before the tours and four miles away at the Colorado School of Mines, Gov. Jared Polis had signed several bills. e new laws contemplate possible solutions as Colorado stretches to achieve its emissionsreduction goals from 2030 to 2050.

Two of the laws anticipate using

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ERIN FRANKS Production Manager efranks@coloradocommunitymedia.com the subterranean in ways to quell emissions or even stow carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere. A central player in this governance will be the Energy and Carbon Management Commission, which is a new name for an old agency. is agency will have a broader mission than the oil and gas drilling that previously was its exclusive domain. One is potential tapping of underground heat to generate electricity. Another is governance of underground storage of hydrogen as Xcel Energy contemplates with a potential project involving the Pawnee power plant near Brush.

Carbon capture and sequestration is a third possibility, but one hotly disputed by some environmental watchdogs, among them Leslie Glustrom, a biochemist. ey are skeptical of the agency’s ability to regulate oil and gas, let alone other activities.

Pipelines, both for oil and for carbon dioxide, have a history of ruptures. In 2022, residents of a rural area of Mississippi were left unconscious after a pipeline rupture left the odorless car-

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POSTMASTER: Send address change to: Northglenn-Thornton Sentinel, 750 W. Hampden Ave., Suite 225, Englewood, CO 80110 organizations, or a mini recreation center. How about a training center for small businesses, or moving a city department’ o ces to the school building, or expanding exercise and tness activities in the gymnasium are a few starters? e city is seeking input from the public. To kick o the feedback, the city will hold a listening session on Wednesday, June 7th from 5:00-7:30 pm at the School which is located at 10951 Harlan Street.

Petition Drive Seeks Strong Mayor Government In Aurora

A city which knows no calm has a group pushing petitions which would do away with the current council-manager form of city government and replace it with a strong mayor form.

Apparently, signature gatherers are telling residents that, if approved, the current mayor and council term limits would be reduced. Currently, the elected mayor and council members can serve a maximum of three four-year terms. Most cities have a limit of two four-year terms.

However, the petition language includes switching to a strong mayor form of local government.

Recently, a group of current and former city council members and police union representatives spoke out against the petition drive. I would echo their arguments to oppose the idea of dropping the current council-manager form of government. It has served Aurora well over the 55 years we have lived in Westminster, with a professional city manager managing the city.

Going to the strong mayor form could open the door to graft plus it places signi cant power in the hands of one person. Cronyism tends to creep in strong mayor cities as we have seen over the years in Chicago, Boston, Denver, Philadelphia and Atlanta to name a few. You may recall some talk of Westminster considering changing to this form of local government back when Herb Atchison was Mayor. I think he was the only one who thought it had merit and it went nowhere.

Uplands developments are in the review pipeline

While the land is still void of construction development activities, there are multiple developments within the Uplands overall plan which are currently under city planning review. Each of the ve developments being reviewed will be an o cial development plan with much detail about the separate parcels.

Two of the parcels, A-2 (NE corner of 86th Ave. & Lowell) and A-4 (NE corner of 84th Ave & Lowell), are in the center portion of the whole property east of Lowell Boulevard.

Home types for A-2 consist of 30 paired homes, 80 townhomes and 25 single family detached homes. All are alley loaded.

A-4 is similar with 36 paired homes, 55 townhomes and 36 single family dwellings. e paired homes and townhomes are alley loaded. Both developments have had neighborhood meetings.

On parcel C-1(SW corner of 88th Ave & future Decatur), Maiker Housing (formerly Adams County Housing Authority) proposes to build 60 senior a ordable apartment units on this two acre site. St. Charles Town Company has submitted its detailed plan for C-2 (SE corner of 88th Ave & future Clay) which would involve 245 a ordable multi-family units on about ten acres.

Finally, parcel B-1(NW corner of Lowell & Bradburn Dr.), which was probably the most controversial parcel, is proposed to include 44 alley loaded paired homes and 38 tuck-under single family detached homes to work with the grade. Developers hosted a neighborhood meeting on April 5. None of the proposed developments are ready yet to schedule a Planning Commission public hearing. ese initial developments - with their architecture, exterior building materials and site con gurations - will provide the public and the home-buying community a representative impression of what to expect. Remember, each development is being designed and built by separate home builders.

Xcel energy is dead wrong on EV network costs imposed on all customers

How would you like to have imposed on you the obligation to pay a part of a $140 million capital cost for something you do not use? It’s bad public policy. It reminds me of “taxation without representation.” It would prohibit private company investments. No free market approach.

Anyway, Xcel Energy has led paperwork with the Public Utilities Commission seeking approval to stick all Colorado electric rate payers with the $140 million cost to build a statewide, company-owned high speed electric vehicle (EV) charging network.

Obliviously, some government, electric utility monopoly or set of private companies will need to build such a system as EV cars become more prevalent.

However, Xcel Energy should not be the entity to do it on our backs while raking in pro ts from the sale of charging EV’s. ere is already $25 million state government money being invested in the network. Plus, Colorado can use a portion of its $550 million coming from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to further expand the system. Private companies have already jumped in investing in installing charging stations. Let the private sector invest and create the rest of the system, but let’s hope the PUC will see the error of approving Xcel’s application.

I wish to express my apologies to Marczyk’s for misspelling their name in a recent article I did about Elle Gadient who works for Niman Ranch. We are looking forward to your opening late this year.

Bill Christopher is a former Westminster city manager and RTD board member. His opinions are not necessarily those of Colorado Community Media. You can contact him at bcjayhawk68@gmail.com.

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PAGE bon dioxide spewing for four hours. Dozens of bills addressing the energy transition were passed this year by Colorado legislators, a recognition of the need for swift actions proportionate to the risk of still-rising emissions. Even more striking was a report from northwest Colorado that Rangely, one of our most prominent oil and gas boom towns, plans to be engaged in the clean energy transition. e work has begun on the changes that will be manifested beyond 2030. e path leading to the current basketball championship began in 2014 when the Nuggets drafted Jokic with their third draft choice that year. e Nuggets did not have high expectations. Some things take time - and then, all of a sudden they’re here.

Speaking at NREL on Monday, U.S.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm noted that urgency. “We have to do everything everywhere all at once to get to that 100% goal,” she said.

Carol Diane Sunderland Baker was born on October 21, 1941, in Denver, CO to Dr. Karl and Mary Sunderland. She died 18 miles and 81 years later on May 25, 2023, in ornton, CO. In those 81 years she also lived in San Diego, California, Lincoln, Nebraska, and North Wales, Pennsylvania. She worked as a Corpsman in the Navy, a nurse’s assistant, a factory worker (Plastica), an in-home childcare provider to Merrybrook, a houseparent at Church Farm School, a lunch lady at Pennbrook Middle School and as a receptionist at Altara Memory Care Facility. She also volunteered at VMSC in Lansdale, PA. Carol raised 3 children, largely as a single parent, traveled the world with her companion, Don Hill of Lansdale and completely enjoyed being Grandma. Carol loved a full house, musicals, eating out –especially breakfast, cooking and baking for others and most of all she loved her family. She did NOT like quiet.

She was preceded in death by her parents and brother, Karl “Fred” Sunderland. She is survived by her three children: Ken (Cheryl) of Bozeman, MT, Karla of Flagsta , AZ and Keith (Karen) of ornton, CO), 6 grandchildren: Nick Koder (Angela), Dalen Baker and Daniel Peterson of Flagsta , AZ, Sunderland, Emmalyn and Drew Baker of ornton, CO and one step-grandson, Jonathan Koder (Nikki) of Aurora, CO and 4 great grandchildren (Kellen, Hayden, Landon and Gavin Koder) her sister-in-law, Jan Sunderland and nephew Kurt Sunderland. Her Celebration of Life was on Saturday June 3, 2023 at the VFW Post 7945, 10217 Quivas St. ornton, CO. In lieu of owers, please take your loved ones out for breakfast and share your favorite stories of Carol.