Center News

By Patty Limerick
Center for Native Ecosystems Entry
April 2009

At long last, we are positioned to embrace the muddled state of human nature, and therein lies our greatest opportunity for conservation.

Pure virtue and unambiguous principle, history shows, have struggled to keep their footing and stay upright when they descend from the heavens and try to touch the earth. When we depart from the zone of principle, reality instantly tosses our neat and pure categories around like last fall’s dry leaves caught in a wild spring wind. (Read on …)

By Tom Burke and Ken Neubecker
Friday, April 10, 2009
GJ Sentinel Article

“The West is very rich in resources. The West is very rich in landscape beauty. As a result, the West is rich in contention.” “It’s not easy being rich.” — “What Every Westerner Should Know About Energy”

That truth, contained in a 2003 publication from the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, has been evident since 2007, when the Legislature ordered a fresh look at rules governing oil and gas exploration and production in Colorado.

More recently, Coloradans became painfully aware of another truism — one about too many eggs in one basket — as a booming energy economy succumbed to the demons of oversupply, low prices, comparatively high production costs and lack of pipeline capacity. (Read on …)

Morning Edition NPR
By Jeff Brady
March 12, 2009
LISTEN NOW

There’s a saying in the Rocky Mountain West: Oil shale has a promising future — and it always will. The Obama Administration has reversed a Bush administration policy of allowing large leases on public lands for oil shale research and development. That made environmentalists happy, but oil companies are not giving up on shale just yet.

This podcast features Center of the American West Researcher, Jason Hanson.

February 25, 2009
Public News Service – CO
By Eric Mack
LISTEN to the original podcast

Denver – The question of balancing energy policy so that it is humane, economically sound and environmentally responsible is the gist of a report released today by the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Researcher Jason Hanson says they looked at a number of “green” energy solutions and found that such balance is possible, but will take a mindful approach from lawmakers. (Read on …)

By: Business Wire
February 23, 2009
CNBC Article

The Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder is releasing its latest report, “High Energy Prices & Low-Income Americans, Reducing the Risk of Unintended Injury” at a Tuesday evening reception in Denver. Energy Outreach Colorado funded and provided information for the report, which outlines the challenge of transitioning to a “new energy economy” while avoiding a negative impact on lower-income households’ ability to afford home energy. (Read on …)

Kirk Siegler
February 23, 2009
KUNC – Public News Room Audio

LISTEN TO WILLET KEMPTON’S INTERVIEW
BOULDER, CO (2009-02-20) University of Delaware Professor and wind energy expert Willet Kempton is visiting the University of Colorado’s Center of the American West this week. Professor Kempton is out to rebuke popular assertions that the United States is a long way off from transitioning to a renewable-energy based system. He also sat down for an interview with KUNC’s Kirk Siegler.

… from the Obama administration

The Denver Post
Various Authors
December 7, 2008

The Denver Post asked a diverse stable of Westerners to add their voices to the chorus of Americans who have advice for President-elect Barack Obama. Top row, left to right: John Hickenlooper, Cleo Parker Robinson, Norma Anderson, Jeff S. Fard. Middle row: Dottie Lamm, Gary Hart, Federico Pena, Brian Schweitzer, Tucker Hart Adams. Bottom row: Al Simpson, Andrew Romanoff, Bill Owens, Patty Limerick. (Read on …)

CU is about more than just science and tech

By G.P. “Bud” Peterson
Colorado Daily Article
Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Four Nobel Laureates, seven MacArthur Fellows, No. 1 in NASA research funding — clearly, the University of Colorado at Boulder is a national leader in the natural sciences and engineering research.

As a comprehensive national university, however, our responsibilities extend well beyond science and technology. (Read on …)

Is Colorado ready for a future with a different climate – hotter days and altered precipitation patterns?

October 12, 2008
By Chris Woodka
The Pueblo Chieftain

DENVER – Some January day in the future, you might be sitting in your living room, drinking coffee made from bottled water and looking across the sand dunes in the front yard.

You’ll glance at the headlines and notice that the Colorado economy is finally bouncing back from the triple whammy of a poor ski season last year, failed crops in most parts of the state and the loss from forest fires the previous summer. (Read on …)

CU News Center
October 2, 2008

The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Energy Initiative, created in 2006 to help meet the world’s sustainable and renewable energy needs, has announced a group of corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, advisers, scientists, policymakers and academics as members of its newly formed EI Leadership Council.

The council currently is made up of 16 private sector seats and includes chief or senior executives of top global and United States energy companies as well as top executives in the fields of finance, investment, transportation, information technology, law and energy utilization, said EI Director Carl Koval, also a CU-Boulder chemistry and biochemistry professor. The council also includes 10 honorary seats held by prominent policymakers and academics, including former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm and former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton. (Read on …)