Taking the long, big picture view, Colorado spent most of its first 100 to 150 years as a state developing its water resources…
Author: Allen Best
Allen Best publishes the e-journal Big Pivots, which chronicles the energy transition in Colorado and beyond.
BIG PIVOTS: Less Water, More Food? Part One
Thirty days after sprouting, trays of green and red lettuce, kale, arugula, and mustard greens slide from the greenhouse to be shorn, weighed and sealed in plastic clamshell packages…
OPINION: Renewables Moving Forward in Colorado… But Not in Wyoming
A federal law has slowed our shift to renewables. What will it take to reform it?
BIG PIVOTS: Electric Vehicles at 9.6% of Auto Sales in Colorado
The website points out that going electric can save owners 40% in ongoing maintenance costs and 75% in fuel costs…
BIG PIVOTS: Is Tri-State Changing Fast Enough to Survive?
Tri-State delivers power to 42 electrical cooperatives in four states, including 17 in Colorado…
Big Batteries Come to Colorado
Lithium-ion battery storage in Colorado is about to get very big. What other pieces of the emissions-free electrical jigsaw puzzle are needed?
OPINION: Dirty Linen in Colorado’s Geographic Drawer?
The Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board this week heard testimony about the role of John Evans, then the territorial governor, in the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864…
BIG PIVOTS: A Hydrogen Economy?
The US Technology Hub is to develop green hydrogen and other innovations and technologies, with a focus on decarbonizing hard-to-abate industries…
BIG PIVOTS: What Boebert and Frisch Did Not Say During the Club 20 Debate
I heard fear, grievance and anger — and not just a few clichés. Where was there talk about opportunities in this energy transition?
For Sale: Colorado’s Biggest Russian-Owned Solar Farm
Colorado’s biggest solar farm and a steel mill will come with purchase of the Bighorn solar project in Pueblo now owned by Evraz…
BIG PIVOTS: A Big Step for a Small Mountain Town, with a New Ban on Natural Gas
He offered the metaphor of a seed now planted “that might grow beyond our little garden..”
BIG PIVOTS: All That Nonsense About the Price of Gasoline
Oil is a boom-and-bust, roller-coaster sector. Gasoline prices were incredibly low just two years ago…
BIG PIVOTS: And a Hot One It Was!
Now we are redefining hot. This chart tells the big picture story of warming in Colorado…
BIG PIVOTS: Can Colorado Energy Providers Keep Pace with a Warming Climate?
Colorado regulators want assurances utilities will have enough juice for air conditioners on even the hottest of days…
BIG PIVOTS: Reinterpreting the Colorado River Compact for the 21st Century
“If forced to pick numbers right now, I’d go with 7%-25% lower by mid-century and 13%-33% less by the 2080s,” Lukas said…
BIG PIVOTS: Subterranean Ogallala Blues
Simple metrics of the Ogallala Aquifer astound. This underground body of water accounts for one-third of all irrigation in the United States…
BIG PIVOTS: Hot Dry Winds Licking at Winter’s Back Door?
We had the Marshall Fire with its 1,084 homes and other buildings destroyed while Christmas wreaths still hung on doors…
BIG PIVOTS: Fossil-Free Technology that Heats Homes in Frigid Fraser
Colorado needs many more air-source heat pumps — and fewer carbon emissions from buildings — to meet its mid-century decarbonization target goals of 90%…
BIG PIVOTS: Will This Coal Plant Deliver Electricity During a 2030 Heat Wave?
How different from just 18 years ago, when Comanche 3 was approved unanimously by a different set of PUC commissioners…