Spending on imported oil had increased from $2.7 billion in 1970 to more than $45 billion in 1977, Carter noted. The creation of SERI was part of "the long, slow job of winning back our economic independence."
Ultimately, a spot on South Table Mountain was chosen for SERI. By 1981, the State of Colorado had donated 300 acres of land to the DOE; by 1984, the facility's first permanent structure, the Field Test Laboratory Building, had been constructed, with 41 different labs.
SERI, like all but one of the other eleven national labs in the DOE's portfolio, was established with a "management and operating contract," which means that while it's owned by the government, it's operated by a private entity through five-year contracts. Today, that entity is the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, which was formed solely for the purpose of managing the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, as SERI was renamed in 1991 to reflect its broader research focus. The Alliance is a partnership of two private companies: Battelle Memorial Institute and MRIGlobal, which played a role in bringing the lab to Colorado. The Alliance's current contract is valued at approximately $1.1 billion over a five-year period, but its structure dates back to the Manhattan Project, which manufactured the two atomic bombs used in World War II. A 2007 DOE document outlining management and operating contracts explains that the production of those bombs was the result of a public-private partnership model that proved efficient and successful.
The partnership in Golden has been successful enough that the lab continues to grow. Before the road project, the DOE acquired additional property on three occasions, eventually expanding NREL to its current size of 328.67 acres on South Table Mountain. (NREL also has a wind-technology site in Boulder that opened in 1993 and now totals 305 acres.) And over the past four years, the DOE has invested more than $400 million in construction at NREL — adding space to pre-existing facilities, expanding on-site infrastructure, creating a new parking garage that fits approximately 1,800 cars, and starting work on the new lab that will be finished next month. In just the last two years, the number of employees on the NREL campus has jumped by a factor of four — from 500 to 2,000 people.
That growth mandated that NREL construct a second entrance, and the DOE persuaded officials in Jefferson County that the main access point on Denver West Boulevard off of 1-70 wasn't enough. America's energy future was dependent on a new road.
******Chris Artemis remembers the day the president came to Golden to dedicate the Solar Energy Research Institute. "We watched Jimmy Carter drive down the street," says Artemis, who was a teenager at the time. "It was pretty impressive."
Artemis had a unique perspective that day: His family has owned the Columbine Cafe, also known as the Columbine bar, on South Golden Road in Pleasant View, since Prohibition. Even as the neighborhood has changed, the bar has remained a time capsule, with just three booths, three tables, about ten bar chairs with red cushions, and an old-fashioned jukebox by the door. Chris and his 82-year-old father, Harry, run the Columbine with help from Chris's brother Steve and sister Tina.
"It was just interesting that Washington came to Pleasant View," Chris says with a laugh. "And they still haven't left! At that time, it didn't dawn on me that it'd be a national laboratory that would never go away."
But Chris says that he and his family never had any problems with the lab — until the day in 2010 when officials from the DOE and Jeffco came calling and said they'd need a small part of the commercial property for a new entrance; the roundabout would require around 3,300 square feet of land.
"When I first heard about it, I said, 'It's not gonna happen,'" recalls Harry Artemis, whose uncle started the Columbine. "I was upset. So was everybody else."
But as conversations with Jefferson County continued, it became clear that the county was prepared to use the power of eminent domain to acquire the land for NREL. "We can't fight it now, and even if we did, we didn't have enough time," says Steve Artemis, who works at the bar part-time and runs Golden Gymnastics. "With lawyer fees, as a small business, we just don't have that disposable income."
Even worse, Harry's wife was ill when the county told the family about the project. "That's the one thing that just hit really hard," Steve says, noting that Jeffco officials gave the family a month to deal with her illness, but after that said they couldn't wait. "It was a personal thing, and, of course, the project is impersonal."
Ultimately, the two sides were able to reach an agreement for the land without Jeffco resorting to the use of eminent domain. But while the Columbine's interior was preserved, it lost an access point from the main road, which has confused customers. That change, as well as putting up with a year of construction, has cost the bar 30 to 40 percent of its business, Chris and his father say.
Down the street, Sean Maloney first learned of the new road when the former Marine was home from duty in Iraq in December 2009 and saw men in suits carrying blueprints on his parents' property, surveying the area.
I experienced using recs calculator and it was a cool way to learn more about the importance of renewable energy. Companies like them should be supported by us. Let us all admit that we are really having a hard time with the current resources that makes our expenses hurt our pockets.
pixiebabe,
First, I apologize for my earlier lack of empathy toward you, your story and your loss of property to your local governments' exercise of eminent domain. My reaction to the article was largely due to journalistic issues rather than your story. Sadly, our country's beginnings are a result of "land-grabs" from Native American tribes and continues today supported by Supreme Court rulings. I strongly support private property ownership rights and deplore seizure of private property through condemnation and EM. I also strongly support national energy policy that doesn't involve war or polluting our air and water. Unfortunately, as our country's land-space becomes more crowded, these conflicting interests become more commonplace and less palatable.
"I've never heard about anything good coming out of NREL," he says. "I've never heard of any breakthroughs.... I've never heard good PR, and I've lived next door to it all my life.... All I see is they keep taking more and more and building more buildings. The public has a right to know what's going on in there."
This person lives within walking distance of NREL, which has a visitor’s center and several open-to-the-public activities every year :-/
No mention in this article of the advancements/contributions toward energy independence in the measurement of public good! How would this person feel if a Wal-Mart was dropped into their neighborhood solely for increased tax revenues. Or drilling for natural gas using fracking?
@vinnieu I guess walmart would have the same argument that it would increase jobs and bring money into the city...still illegal to claim eminate domain
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Salazar, Obama, Carter, Lamm, Baker, Kroposki: Statist experts on bribing people with their own money. Residual value in a Federal technology investment is of course never measured in dollars or true innovation for that matter. It is only measured in altruistic intent. They simply buy stuff with your money (jobs, roads, buildings, lab equipment, votes) then measure economic output in terms of how much of your money was spent in your neighborhood. NREL is simply a testament to how well your political leaders and their bureaucrat appointees are extorting you. Those of you touting the virtues of governmental intervention in "clean" technology either work at NREL or can't calculate ROI.
I thought this article would list some of the valuable contributions/advancements NREL has made to renewable energy. As I write this, I'm in the early stages of installing solar. This would probably not be possible without the work of NREL! Lets don't put energy independence on hold cuz somebody doesn't feel secure with NREL's location. Would they feel better if a coal-fired electrical generation plant landed in their backyard?
@vinnieu I think more of the point is that these people worked all their lives to secure a place for their family. I'm sure there were sacrifices and plenty of overtime involved in this process and after everything is said and done your neighbor sends you documents the day before Christmas and demands your property. And yes that's exactly what happened. I would much rather buy solar for my house with my hard work rather than hand everything over because someone told me so.
I'd like to publish some of these comments in our print edition, ideally with the author's full name. If you're interested, e-mail me at patricia.calhoun@westword.com
This article SERIOUSLY underplays the use and abuse of eminent domain.
Are people aware that in Kelo v City of New London, the US Supreme Court rubber stamped the growing trend of governments (from municipal to Federal) to use eminent domain to take property from private individuals to give to other private entities? So it isn’t just that the govt needs to build a highway and your land is in the middle of it. If a private entity wants to build a development, and your land is part of the intended site, a govt can use EM to force the sale of your land that will be transferred to another private entity.
Gone are the days when you heard stories about some widow having a skyscraper built around her house b/c she refused to sell to a developer. Now, the govt will just force you to sell under EM. That govt entity will receive far more tax revenue, jobs growth, etc from having that development rather than you retaining your property. And the US Supreme Court has said this is ok.
Don’t believe that the existing statutes (in CO anyway) that purport to limit this type of EM use actually do that. This has happened over and over again. The interpretations of “public use” are jokes. And the CO Supreme Court has gone right along with the USSC.
The long and short of the Kelo ruling is that you don’t really own your property. Any government entity can come in and force its sale for the most tenuous of reasons. And consider that Kelo (2005) and a great deal of legislation around the country designed to limit this abuse of EM (not just in CO) was enacted prior to the economic collapse. You had better believe jurisdictions are more motivated to increase revenue and by any means necessary.
All these people around NREL had better prepare for the possibility of losing their land altogether if NREL has further expansion in the future.
Honestly, I question Westword's motives with this article. Especially which quotes they wanted in this article versus those they didn't. What do I mean? They specifically tried to grab the hearts of people by getting the "HEARTWRENCHING" stories of the families who lost a little land (which has been vacant / full of weeds and unused for the past 2 years) And saying "I've never seen or heard anything good coming from NREL..." That is a joke right?
How about NREL's 27 Research & Development top 100 awards over the past 12 years? Where is that mentioned? Do you wonder why your air coniditioning or heating has gotten better in the last 2 decades? What about water energy, electric and hybrid vehicles, eletric and hybrid commercial trucks, solar, biofuels (NREL developed one of the catalysts that made E-85 possible on an economic scale), etc. You should know that NREL has something to do with that... What about those things? Where is NREL mentioned for the real good it has been doing by producing clean energy? If you expand a laboratory by 1500 employees in the matter of a decade - you HAVE to expand. New buildings need to be established to house those employees, and that serves as a great opportunity to show the world that you can build green!
One point of entry and exit is not acceptable for an organization of that nature - in fact it isn't safe. 2,000+ employees is the same as a multinational corporation! You have to provide proper access and exits for those employees.
Think of it like this: If there was a major accident that blocked the entry/exit onto the campus and firetrucks and ambulances couldn't get to another accident further in the campus wouldn't that be a problem? -Yes... it'd be a problem. Maybe that is why city planners work hard to make it possible for multiple ways to detour aroudn things in the event of a problem...
As a person who has seen this new road (of which they provide no photos), it isn't like they stole a portion of their lives. The land was unused and this made very little impact other than a possible property value decrease due to light traffic. The reason they didn't provide photos was probably because they wanted the words to paint a picture worse than a photo of the realism would've provided. Its a road people. Two lanes and 1/4 a mile long, nothing more - nothing less. And what NREL does completely overshadows a little bit of unused land being seized to better the access and exit abilities of the thosands that work at this facility.
One more note before I get off my grandstand should be this: The economic benefit of NREL is outstanding in this state, as read in the article. It provides nearly 800 million in economic benefit to the state. If this country is all about jobs and getting the economy back on track, well then i'd silence a little bit of the rhetoric that their broken hearts overshadow the nature of NREL's mission.
--JJ - Former NREL employee.
@traven37 it wasn't vacant weed filled land. It was a massive garage that my father built. It was the family business that brought us so close together. It was the pasture where we fed the horses. It was a peaceful place where we could detatch ourselves from the corrupt world around us. I love what NREL has to offer but I hate the way they took everything and called it nothing. You have no right to say that our family wasn't effected. No picture would have ever been able to capture the serenity of our home.
i don't see what the problem with the road is. a much bigger problem, i imagine, is the county jail that's just 1/4 of a mile to the east of the road.
@brax.qlipp the problem with the road is the way that it was taken. Eminent domain was used against the people and families affected. This is currently a private road to NREL not a public road. The only way its considered public is if they open it to the park. That is still not done.
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Where is the mention in the article about the PUBLIC ELEMENTARY school affected by this road? I could see taking property for some vital need but not to provide drivers a more convenient way to get to work. What about using the road up next to the park that already had access to roads that connect to Old Golden Road? Are people unable to follow simple directions to find a place? Oh wait, wasn't there some special Frog that would be endangered if they went that route? I am obviously too disgusted by this to process yet.
Sounds like the woman has Ophthalmophobia – fear of being stared at and Scopophobia – fear of being looked at or stared at.
NO ONE is staring at you lady!
Next time, how about we vote the right people IN to office, all the way from City Counsel all the way to the freaking White House because the ones we have in the county obviously don't care- but this wouldn't have happened without the renewable energy act.
@maikohiga2 they are staring. I have seen many cars nearly drive straight off the road. Not to mention the bicyclists tresspassing on clearly marked property. It sounds like you have a fear of being compassionate to a stranger.
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@maikohiga2 They probably are staring at her because she sits next to a beautiful water fall!
The agreement was not met at all! The construction ventured far off of the land they stole and crept on private property leaving a house without the ability to even wash a load of laundry. I am excited to have a surplus of renewable energy but at what cost? At the cost of NRELs biggest supporters. Does this make any sense?
@pixiebabe2 The way it is described in the article, it made it seem to me that maybe a lot of details and particulars were not specifically addressed in the contract. Ambiguities can wreak havoc in contracting as both sides may interpret general clauses and terms differently. Hence DOE claiming they complied with all terms of the contract. If the contract was badly written and lacking in specifics, then DOE might technically be telling the truth.
But the only way to get DOE to comply with the terms of the contract, or have a court determine the intent of the contract, would be to take it to court. Which I have no doubt would cost the family a great deal. Unless the family is willing to go to the mat on this, they are probably screwed. I don't know if the family had a lawyer the last go 'round, but if they did, they probably need a better one. If they didn't use one with the contract, they should at least contact one to see what are their options. Sad but true.
@NWDen our family had a great lawyer and he did everything he could for is. We thought that our own personal property would be returned to its place after the construction. I guess that is something that needs to be in writting. Although what was in writting was bent around to better the construction company. We had no rights and we lost all say. The company had easements but somehow were always past the limits and that's how we ended up with a broken leachfield. To cover theirselves they are hiring a company my family has worked with for years to replace the leachfield but it has been several months still. The road has increased the flood plane and leaves us stuck. We just got our permit the other day but now the field is going right where we wanted to build a new garage (because the original one my dad built was destroyed in the process). The construction company knew they were in the wrong and tried to make a peace offering of a bottle of wine. I don't think wine justifies breaking the law. Not to mention the fact that our family is in recovery from alcoholism. Thanks for getting to know us NREL!
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