CROSS CURRENTS

It could be larger or have a different con guration depending on the decisions council makes on the whole lingering density issue. Given the existing density, probable additional apartment construction and pulling in residents north of 92nd Avenue, a larger park space is certainly justi ed. e public has made themselves clear going back to the 2021 mayor/council campaign and election in wanting less density (fewer buildings or fewer oors of buildings).

I don’t understand the hold-up. It is pretty simple to decide. Let’s remember that the City of West-

W

BIG PIVOTS

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

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-

Call first: 143 S. 2nd Pl., Brighton, CO 80601

Mailing Address: 750 W. Hampden Ave., Suite 225 Englewood, CO 80110

Phone: 303-566-4100

Web: WestminsterWindow.com ey occurred both in basketball and in Colorado energy on May 22.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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City seeks input on future uses of Sheridan Green Elementary

As previously announced, Jefferson County Schools is closing 16 schools at the end of the school year which just ended. ree of the schools are within Westminster including Sheridan Green Elementary.

When the city transferred the land to the school district to build the school, the deed had a reverter clause which stated that if the school district ever ceased using the property for a school, the facility and land would revert to the City of Westminster. Who would have ever guessed that the reverter clause would come into play? e existing zoning allows general community services such as public safety facilities, schools and institutions of higher learning, child care facilities, places of worship, community centers, hospitals, municipal facilities and cemeteries. So, what should the city do with this nice windfall facility? Given its size, there could be multiple uses in di erent parts of the building. Here is some food for thought to get your creative juices going: How about an enlarged archival history center? Or o ces for non-pro t

Built in 1988, the 46,518 square foot building which sits on almost seven acres will soon be the property of the City of Westminster.

SEE CHRISTOPHER, P13

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

LINDSAY NICOLETTI Operations/ Circulation Manager lnicoletti@coloradocommunitymedia.com

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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-