Photos: Meet the Five Richest Coloradans in 2014

Forbes has just released its annual list of the 400 richest people in America, and five Coloradans made the cut. Who are they and where did they land on Forbes’ roster? Count them down below, complete with photos and excerpts from Forbes data and text. For the original post, click…

Fracking: Call For Ban Cites Quakes, Spills, Exploding Trains

Only days before the United Nations Climate Summit, the environmental group Food & Water Watch has released a wide-ranging critique of the oil and gas industry, linking the practice of fracking to a host of adverse economic, health and climate impacts — from scarred landscapes, declining air quality and community…

John Hickenlooper’s Fracking Panel Snubs the Fractivists

Earlier this week, when Governor John Hickenlooper announced the names of the nineteen people selected for a special oil and gas task force intended to address fracking-related land use and health issues across the state, he boasted of the group’s “balanced and informed representation.” It was as if he was…

Breckenridge Marijuana Shop Fights Move to Force It Off Main Street

Breckenridge has a well-founded reputation for progressive marijuana policy. The town’s voters decriminalized pot in 2009, years before the passage of Amendment 64. Nonetheless, officials passed a law banning new pot shops from opening on Main Street, and a grandfather clause for the Breckenridge Cannabis Club, which was already located…

Fracking Compromise: Savvy Solution or Sellout?

There’s plenty of back-patting going on today in the smoke-free back rooms where politics thrives like spores in agar, after an eleventh-hour deal was forged by Governor John Hickenlooper, Representative Jared Polis and others to remove four initiatives dealing with oil and gas development from the November ballot. The move…

Single fracking waste well blamed for hundreds of low-level quakes

A single injection well in Weld County, used to dispose of millions of gallons of produced water from fracking operations, has been linked to 500 minor earthquakes in the area over a seven-week period since early June, according to University of Colorado researchers who’ve been monitoring seismic activity around the…

Alamosa “healthy living park” moves ahead, RV park nixed

Backers of a proposed “healthy living park” in Alamosa, who saw their efforts last year to acquire former school property in a prime location frustrated by a controversial deal that put the property in the hands of an RV park developer for substantially less than its appraised value, have settled…