In this week’s feature, “Sun Burn,” we go inside the National Renewable Energy Lab — the federal facility in Golden that has for 35 years been dedicated to innovations in energy efficiency. In print, we take an in-depth look at NREL’s important role in solar energy and other industries over…
After a lengthy public hearing where dozens of property owners and merchants in the Five Points area weighed in on the future of the historic neighborhood, the Denver City Council voted to approve a controversial redevelopment plan that deems the area “blighted.” Supporters argue that the plan will lay the…
Tonight, Denver City Council will vote on a plan to redevelop the Welton Corridor — and some property owners in the area fear that if it passes, it will allow the city to seize their homes and businesses. But the Denver Urban Renewal Authority, the entity behind the proposal, argues…
Update below: Paul Ryan is just a regular outdoorsy guy who likes to climb mountains. At least that’s the image Ryan presented in one of his first rallies as the vice presidential candidate for the Republican Party — in a speech last month at Lakewood High School where he mentioned…
Cycling just got a lot easier for students and professors who pedal to the downtown Auraria campus — and for Denver bikers trying to make their way around it. This week, officials unveiled a new bike lane that goes straight through the downtown campus, eliminating what bike advocates call a…
For most of its life, the Gates Rubber plant on South Broadway made tires, hoses, fan belts and other industrial wonders. Since the place closed down nearly twenty years ago, though, its chief product line has been controversy. Prospective developers of the site have battled environmental contamination and the financial…
A river of possibility runs through this city, and we have Joe Shoemaker to thank for that. Decades ago, he looked at the polluted mess that was then the South Platte River and he saw the potential to create an incredible amenity for Denver. From that vision came the Greenway…
As the number of cyclists in Denver continues to grow rapidly, the city is racing to keep up, building new infrastructure that helps bikes and vehicles safely share the road. The city is now exploring the best options for a bike facility on 15th Street, a major link in downtown,…
After speaking in Denver today, President Barack Obama will fly to the Western Slope for a campaign event at Grand Junction High School — my alma mater! And if he looks out his window en route, he just might see the crop design pictured above. Who’s responsible for this bit…
More and more cyclists are riding in Denver. So it’s good timing that the city’s main cycling advocacy organization — one working to make the streets safer for bikes — has just received the largest single donation in the group’s history…
Cory Gardner is on fire. More than two hundred homes and thousands of acres of forests went up in flames in his district in the past few weeks, and the freshman congressman from Colorado knows exactly who and what to blame. Not drought, not climate change, not even the bark-beetle…
Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of reports about biking and bike safety in Denver and beyond. Watch out, Denver, the suburbs are taking cycling seriously, too! We’ve reported on the dramatic rise of cyclists in Denver, and it turns out the healthy debate this news has…
Back in the 1980s, when I still had in-laws working a family farm out on the eastern plains, I used to head out to visit them on U.S. 36 and pause, like many drivers did, at a wide spot in the road called Last Chance. It was a place for…
Abound Solar has officially gone bankrupt and General Electric PrimeStar is putting on hold a much-anticipated solar panel plant it had planned for Aurora. Both cases are disappointing developments for renewable energy in Colorado — but Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar says these are just minor (and expected) blips…
Oil and drilling do wonderful things for Colorado, and government better stay out of the industry’s way. This seems to be an underlying message behind a new web portal launched this week by the Western Energy Alliance, a Colorado-based group that represents hundreds of oil and gas companies in the…
Update: In response to requests from some groups to extend the public comment period for the proposal to increase water storage at Chatfield Reservoir — a project that’s raised several environmental concerns, as detailed in the original story below — the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has just announced a…
Update: Over the next few months, dozens of General Electric employees in Colorado will face layoffs as part of the company’s controversial plan to put a much-anticipated solar manufacturing plant on hold for at least eighteen months. Since news broke last week about GE’s plans to delay an Aurora facility,…
Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of reports about biking and bike safety in Denver and beyond. Update: After we reported yesterday that the number of bike-related accidents jumped from 2010 to 2011, the Denver Police Department sent us new statistics for 2012 — and it’s looking…
Rocky Mountain National Park officials have recognized for years that Front Range pollution — from auto exhausts, power plants, emissions from oil wells and refineries, feedlots and more — pose a threat to the health and welfare of their high-country streams, fish and plants. Now a new study from a…
Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of reports about biking and bike safety in Denver and beyond. There are a lot more cyclists on the road in Denver — and apparently a lot more police officers looking to give them tickets. As the interest in biking grows…
Wild horse activists managed to block the complete removal of a small but hardy herd of mustangs in northwest Colorado this week. Bureau of Land Management officials contend that severe drought conditions require roundup and removal of the West Douglas herd, for its own well-being — but opponents say chasing,…
“Better cities, better entrepreneurs…and vice versa,” proclaims [i4c], which is running a contest to make things better for three entrepreneurial ventures. The prime mover behind [i4c] is Galvanize, an organization founded last October that’s dedicated to “growing start-ups through capital, community and curriculum.” And now the finalists have been announced…
