Energy Technology

Rich Tower, Poor Tower

Memories of Colorado’s atomic age

Ken Salazar wants windmills in the ocean, but first he'll have to save the Interior Department

Bringing on the Heat

The price of natural gas has been on a cycle for years.

For Colorado's largest power co-op, going green will mean taking down the King of Coal

The price of natural gas has been on a cycle for years.

Grease Monkey

Marilyn Megenity went biodiesel, and her car came up smelling like...fries.

With help from the feds, a Denver scientist helps Second Life go nuclear

Marilyn Megenity went biodiesel, and her car came up smelling like...fries.

Partly Sunny

CU students have twice won the Solar Decathlon. Can they make it a three-peat?

Power Outage

Xcel Energy faces tough financial scrutiny as power companies nationwide feel the heat.

Pole Position

Ruby Hill-area residents want to protect their views from eleven-story utility poles, but Xcel thinks it has the juice.

Sacrificial Slope

Ruby Hill-area residents want to protect their views from eleven-story utility poles, but Xcel thinks it has the juice.

Sun Day

Ruby Hill-area residents want to protect their views from eleven-story utility poles, but Xcel thinks it has the juice.

Auraria Campus Goes Green

Students get solar-powered.

Letters to the Editor

From the week of November 3, 2005

A Mighty Wind

The results of Xcel's wind-power program are still in the air.

Carbon Loading

Xcel’s solution to rising energy prices includes a lot of coal. Is that a bad thing?

Fuel for Love

The order is in: Buy bio.

The Alternative Voter’s Guide

The Legislative Council’s ballot-analysis booklet has inspired so many fights, it should be called the black-and-blue book. Here’s our cure.

Power to the People

The answer could be blowing in the wind.

Socket to Me

If Colorado deregulates electricity, Californians will be first in line for the state's cheap power--and Coloradans may get fried.

Dark Days on Black Mesa

The Hopi want one of the largest coal mines in North America to stop using their groundwater. If springs and wells dry up, their ancient culture may disappear.

A sunny day for Secretary Solarczar, but a slog ahead?

​Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar was back in Colorado today, August 4, touring a Longmont solar panel company as a way of pushing the Obama administration's vision of a clean energy economy. But that vision, which involves collecting abundant solar power from a procession of solar farms ... More >>

Larkburger now using 100 percent all-natural wind power

Larkburgers, fries and shake made with renewable energy​ Larkburger is making a name for itself with such menu items as hand-cut fries seasoned with parmesan and truffle oil -- but Larkburger president Adam Baker hopes that with the switch to wind power for 100 percent of its energy use, the c ... More >>

SMA Solar to convert Denver into Sunny Island

Sunny Island isn't much of a vacation spot.​You know the decision of a business to relocate is a big deal when the state's governor offers to serve as a de facto publicist, as Bill Ritter did yesterday during the announcement that the German firm SMA Solar Technology AG will be opening a plant ... More >>

Fast-track this: Five untapped Colorado energy sources

Thar she blows: The Penry-Huttner Geothermal Project.​The Department of the Interior just designated six renewable energy projects, including a 400-megawatt solar tower, as "fast-track" developments deserving of the highest priority. All six of the projects happen to be in California. Hard t ... More >>

Colorado tribes looking to ramp up renewable energy, too

A photo of Ignacio, Colorado, home base of the Southern Ute tribe.​In recent days, the New Mexico-based Jemez Pueblo tribe has gotten plenty of ink for its plan to build "the first utility-scale solar plant on tribal land." Turns out two Colorado tribes -- the Southern Utes and Ute Mountain Ut ... More >>

Ken Salazar: Oil spill gets sludge on his shiny green suit

Department of the InteriorThe fire aboard the Deepwater Horizon.​It's too soon to start putting a figure on the damage -- to marine life, tourism, fishing industries and more -- from the 600-square-mile oil slick oozing onto the Gulf Coast today. And it's too early in the investigation to know ... More >>

Ken Salazar taps "recovery czar" Chris Henderson to fix MMS

The New RepublicDrill, baby, drill: Just what does additional offshore drilling add to the mix?​In the wake of the worst American offshore oil disaster in decades, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is scrambling on several fronts to address the perception that his administration has been m ... More >>

Home Improvements

The New RepublicDrill, baby, drill: Just what does additional offshore drilling add to the mix?​In the wake of the worst American offshore oil disaster in decades, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is scrambling on several fronts to address the perception that his administration has been m ... More >>

Black out: Lamar gets steamed over a troubled coal plant -- right in the middle of town

The New RepublicDrill, baby, drill: Just what does additional offshore drilling add to the mix?​In the wake of the worst American offshore oil disaster in decades, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is scrambling on several fronts to address the perception that his administration has been m ... More >>

Gas-drilling oversight bill killed by the House: What's the fracking point?

Gas well pads.​A bill that sought to increase the reporting process for water-quality complaints related to oil and gas drilling in Colorado died quietly at the statehouse yesterday, with Republican lawmakers insisting that the industry's use of hydraulic fracturing fluids, or "fracking," pose ... More >>

Pueblo nuclear power plant proposal hearings against backdrop of Japanese explosions

​Timing is everything. With gas prices going up, up, up due to the chaos in North Africa last month, suddenly a nuclear power plant started looking good to Pueblo County, where the commissioners are considering a proposal to make that county one of the spots in the country vying for a new nuke ... More >>

Japanese radiation worries in U.S.: Health dept. tries to calm fears as media stokes them

​This morning, Peter Boyles spent part of his KHOW morning show wondering if we should be taking potassium iodide to protect ourselves against radiation from the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. And at this writing, the main story on the CBS4 home page asks, "Could Japan's Radi ... More >>

Jared Polis and Diana DeGette try to tighten regulations on fracking -- again

"Gasland"​Representatives Diane DeGette and Jared Polis are taking another run at tightening federal regulations on hydraulic fracturing, a natural gas drilling technique also known as fracking. Introduced this week by the Colorado twosome and fellow Democratic rep Maurice Hinchey from New Yor ... More >>

Renewable energy standards in CO: Lawsuit claims bias against nonrenewable electricity

​Are there still people out there who oppose green energy initiatives? Hell yes there are. The American Tradition Institute, a think tank that espouses "free-market principles of stewardship" pertaining to environmental issues, has filed a complaint against the State of Colorado, arguing that ... More >>

Fracking primer: State seeks to address uproar over drilling process

​Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" -- pumping massive amounts of water mixed with toxic chemicals into tight formations to extract oil and gas -- remains a sore subject among environmentalists, neighbors of drilling rigs and some lawmakers, even as energy industry boosters insist it's safe. ... More >>

Doug Lamborn retreats as the National Renewable Energy Lab touts its achievements

Doug Lamborn.​Call it a big fat coincidence, but days after Rep. Doug Lamborn backed off his efforts to cut funding for renewable energy research, Golden's National Renewable Energy Laboratory has unveiled a colorful online magazine promoting the practical applications of its work. Now Lamb ... More >>

Fracking Aurora is a natural gas: Kenny Be's Worst-Case Scenario

​ On Thursday, June 23, 2011, the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission will explain how hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations on the former Lowry Bombing Range comply with Arapahoe County's 2007 Sustainable Growth Objectives. It will be an easy sell...

Fracking contamination "inconceivable," says John Hickenlooper -- but EPA disagrees

​Governor John Hickenlooper has walked a taut tightrope on energy issues since taking office, pushing for more natural gas drilling in a state already leading the region in drilling starts, while at the same time nudging the industry toward greater disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic ... More >>

Fort Lyon prison could live again as wind farm: The answer, my friend, is blowin' in your face

Mark Manger​It's distressing to learn that the good folks of Bent County are shelling out thousands of dollars a month to lobbyists in an effort to "repurpose" the decrepit, soon-to-be-shuttered state prison at Fort Lyon. After all, we suggested five amazingly practical new uses for the old pl ... More >>

Fracking: Gas industry pours $747 million into lobbying and Congress

Colorado well pads. ​As the oil and gas industry has turned increasingly to hydraulic fracturing to extract reserves, fears about groundwater contamination from the toxic chemicals used in "fracking" have intensified. And that's prompted a $747 million spending spree by major industry players ... More >>

Fracking: Congress needs to drill into the issue, says Diana DeGette

Diana DeGette.​As reported in this space on Friday, a new study from Common Cause tracks how oil and gas interests spent $747 million on lobbying and campaign donations since 2001 to win congressional support for "fracking," hydraulic fracturing drilling methods that involve using toxic chemic ... More >>

Fracking: Polluted water in Wyoming could spell trouble in Colorado

Colorado oil pads.​The release of an EPA report detailing suspected groundwater contamination from gas drilling operations in Wyoming comes just as Colorado is weighing tougher restrictions and wider disclosures about the hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" process -- and may serve as Exhibit A ... More >>

Fracking lovefest blooms from John Hickenlooper's gas play

​Yesterday, amid an unusually genial gathering of environmental and energy leaders, Governor John Hickenlooper unveiled new state rules requiring detailed disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking") methods of drilling for oil and gas -- a major step toward transpa ... More >>

Fracking the North Fork: Paonia residents rally against drilling assault

​Thanks to the increasing push for more oil and gas drilling, communities once considered out of the fray are being drawn into the controversies over hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" -- even folks in the stunning North Fork Valley, an area better known for its organic farms, ranches operate ... More >>

Encana blasts EPA report linking fracking to Wyoming water pollution

Encana WY drill rig. ​In a telephone conference with journalists this morning, officials of the Canadian energy giant Encana sharply disputed an EPA draft report that linked the company's gas drilling operations in Wyoming to contamination of residents' drinking water, calling the report badly ... More >>

Tim Wirth scolds Obama for lack of action on climate change

Tim Wirth.​Environmental leaders who ardently supported Barack Obama in 2008 haven't had much to celebrate in the past three years, as key pieces of legislation dealing with climate change and controls on the energy industry have been scuttled, diluted or delayed -- by a bad economy, a increas ... More >>

Fracking is booming, but a friendlier name couldn't hurt. Drill, baby, drill!

​The word of the year? Our money (and yours) is on "fracking," the shortened term for "hydraulic fracturing," a practice that shook neighborhoods (in some cases literally) around the country this year, and has fueled the oil and gas boom in northeastern Colorado. But if energy execs really wan ... More >>

What the Frack?!: Grassroots group pushes for fracking moratorium in Arapahoe County

​The first time Sonia Skakich-Scrima learned about fracking, she was reading the Denver Business Journal almost a year ago to date. What she read alarmed her, but what she Googled afterward tripled that. "I tried to understand why we didn't care about the environment or the aftermath," she s ... More >>

Are you smarter than a Cherry Creek High school student?

​ Why do photovoltaic cells have p-type and n-type layers? * What causes stars to twinkle?* If you know the answers to these questions, you might qualify for the winning team of the Colorado Science Bowl. You might even be smarter than a Cherry Creek High school student!