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Add one more dumb idea to the Boulder Energy Future List. So Boulder wants to buy all the light poles and change them to LEDs. Why is that dumb? Everything that they aren’t telling us, that’s why. Every town around us had LED street lights years ago and Xcel did the conversion. That’s right, years ago while Boulder was pursuing the electric utility boondoggle. That’s right, we could have had Xcel convert all of our street lights to LEDs years ago. All that savings in money and greenhouse gas from the electricity are down the drain because we were so smart we said no to the conversion. That’s right, we rejected the conversion years ago.

What was the stated reason and what was the unstated reason for that decision? The stated reason was that we didn’t like the color temperature of the LEDs. That was based on the idea that the street lights would keep us awake. Interestingly there has been no lost-sleep-outcry from all the towns around us that did the conversion years ago. The unstated reason, I believe, was that if the electric utility had happened it would have cost us more since Xcel would have to get reimbursed for the conversion. This is just one more example of Boulder energy leadership’s warped logic.

One of the justifications for this purchase is that Boulder would do the maintenance and it would be so much better than Xcel. Right, kind of like our great/poor library funding, and our sky-high water bills that followed the 2013 floods that revealed a poorly maintained water system.  Nope, this is just another costly dumb idea. We can get all the benefits of LED street lights by saying “Yes” instead of spending $7 million.  When asked for more Climate Action money in November, be skeptical, very skeptical.

Colorado has a unique opportunity to get wolf restoration right. While our neighbors in the Northern Rockies have failed and are now engaged in a full-on war on wolves, Coloradans have the spirit and the leadership to coexist with native carnivores.

Colorado can be a place in which wolves can be safe and welcomed back in sufficient numbers so that their ecological benefits can preserve the state’s open spaces, magnificent forests and wilderness areas. Colorado’s wolf plan needs to restore wolves throughout suitable habitats in western Colorado to bring about the desired ecological benefit, fulfill the spirit of Proposition 114 and track with the best available science.

A half-hearted effort that sees only token wolf populations will fail Colorado and wolves. The Colorado wolf restoration plan should never include recreational wolf hunting. Wolves are shy, intelligent, social animals. Pack structures, prey and territorialism combine to regulate wild wolf populations. Science indicates that there is no need to “cull” or keep a population “in check.” Hunting wolves is trophy hunting and only done for sport. This was not what the voters passed, and this should never happen as part of a reintroduction plan for a species that is struggling to survive. In fact, most Americans find trophy hunting abhorrent, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

Proposition 114 is the first step toward a Colorado that could set the standard for wolf restoration and management in the American West. This is our opportunity to be a leader in preserving our wildlife heritage for all Coloradoans and for future generations.

As happened with San Francisco, Boulder is, I believe, quickly obtaining a reputation as the place to go if you have a drug habit and no resources and don’t mind sleeping outside.

While we squabble with the ACLU, we are approaching a situation which will be difficult to recover from or even mitigate.

I believe a recent letter about the CU South repeal effort got the facts wrong. Here are the facts as I see them:

Opinion writers can make up their own facts, but we continue to hold out hope that Boulder voters will educate themselves on what is true and what isn’t. In land use law, the agreements upon which an annexation is approved are codified in an Annexation Agreement. If something is not included in the agreement, it has no force of law. If the wording of a requirement is not clear, I believe, the interpretation will be up to the party with the most lawyers. Please read the CU South Annexation Agreement for yourself and decide whether this annexation will be a bad deal for Boulder. Vote yes to Repeal and make sure we actually get a good deal.

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