Simple metrics of the Ogallala Aquifer astound. This underground body of water accounts for one-third of all irrigation in the United States…
Author: Allen Best
Allen Best publishes the e-journal Big Pivots, which chronicles the energy transition in Colorado and beyond.
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…
BIG PIVOTS: The Colorado River’s Unsolved Math Problem
Long term, this worsening situation of subpar runoff in the Colorado River matters to well more than 90% of Colorado’s population…
BIG PIVOTS: Electricity Today is Like Colorado’s Road Network a Century Ago
Building new transmission will be expensive and siting difficult. “But if you like clean energy, you have to love transmission,” said Hannegan…
BIG PIVOTS: Crossing the Natural Gas Bridge?
Will new natural gas plants end up being like many coal plants, assets stranded long before the debt is paid?
BIG PIVOTS: The Marshall Fire, Climate Change, and Colorado’s Legislative Agenda
“At no time during these fires did it occur to us that we might be in personal danger. That perception has now changed forever…”
BIG PIVOTS: Viewing a Useless Boat Ramp at Lake Powell
The ramp was about a football field in length and tilted at the angle of a beginners’ ski slope. At the bottom were barriers, then broken ground. Far below was the water…
BIG PIVOTS: Colorado is Now Talking About Closing Its Last Coal Plant
If accepted by the PUC, this likely will be the first time that social cost of carbon has been applied to operation of any fossil fuel plant in the United States…
BIG PIVOTS: Creating a Low-Carb Diet of Local and Imported Energy
Can local resources be knitted with large-scale resources from elsewhere to meet the 2030 carbon-free goals?
Colorado Arrives at the Dawn of Megafires, Part Three
“It was a gut reaction,” said Brubaker. “I looked at the sky and I knew that I needed to get out of here…”
Colorado Arrives at the Dawn of Megafires, Part Two
“What’s striking is that temperatures and correspondingly fire are now exceeding the range that these forests have coped with for thousands of years…”
Colorado Arrives at the Dawn of Megafires, Part One
Temperatures will rise. Wildfires will become larger, more unpredictable. Welcome to the age of megafires…
Colorado Puts the Kibosh to Plastic Bags and Foam. What’s Next?
With this law, called the Plastic Pollution Reduction Act, Colorado became the 10th state to take action against single-use plastic bags…
OPINION: Electric Utilities and Regulators Do the ‘What-If’ Dance
“It’s about economic development and jobs — and, in the retirement of coal plants, the community impacts of just transition. Economics and low cost still matter. But there are many other considerations…”