In Boulder, where every resident automatically receives access to recycling and composting services, more than half of the city’s waste is diverted from landfills. But in many Colorado cities and towns, residents who want to recycle must pay extra, or make a trip to recycling centers. The discrepancy between the relative ease of recycling in […]
Pueblo
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government
Closing a coal-fired power plant in Pueblo to meet Colorado climate goals is easier said than done
This much is certain: Comanche 3 — Xcel Energy’s $1.3 billion coal-fired power plant in Pueblo — is going to close. When and how are now issues of intense debate before the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. The fate of the plant — the state’s largest single emitter of carbon dioxide — is key to Colorado […]
Posted inClimate, Energy, Environment, News
Stingy car electrification plan by Black Hills Energy drives Pueblo inequity, advocates say
Jamie Valdez is on the lookout for a used car deal, and the longtime Pueblo environmental activist is ready to put his money where his advocacy is. But the used hybrid he wants rarely turns up in southern Colorado car markets, and when one does, the price has jumped again. National electric vehicle reports say […]
Posted inCOVID, News, Politics and Government
From sewers to golf courses, cities like Pueblo see green with federal COVID relief dollars
By Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News Duluth, Minnesota, is hiring a social worker to help people with addiction and mental health problems. Pueblo, Colorado, started paying homeless residents to clean city streets. Palm Beach Gardens, Florida — in Palm Beach County, home to 160 golf courses — is building a new golf course. These are […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Environment, News
Colorado “nutrition labels” on construction materials will flag carbon instead of fat, salt and sugar
If the built environment is the grocery store, then in a world full of climate change worries, “embodied carbon” is the nutrition label. Carbon dioxide is the salt, sugar and fat on the label. Manufacturing road asphalt, concrete, reinforcing steel and bricks creates large amounts of the greenhouse gas. Now a pioneering Colorado law will […]
Posted inCOVID, Education, Health, News, Politics and Government
Not enough kids are using Colorado’s school COVID testing program for it to work, governor says
A coronavirus testing program for schools that Gov. Jared Polis has touted as a way to keep students safe and in class isn’t working as designed because not enough kids are getting swabbed, Polis told The Colorado Sun on Monday. Fewer than 5,000 students — less than 1% of Colorado’s K-12 student population — are […]
Posted inBusiness, Economy, Energy, Environment, Housing, News
A long-languishing Pueblo subdivision could become one of Colorado’s largest zero-energy communities
By October, a number of new houses and townhomes are expected to sprout up seemingly overnight on a piece of land in north Pueblo. These are not ordinary homes, but eco-friendly spaces that would come with zero-energy ready home certification from the U.S. Department of Energy. With walls built in a factory, construction could be […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Colorado Republicans decide not to opt out of 2022 primaries
PUEBLO — Colorado Republicans on Saturday rejected a contentious push to opt out of next year’s primaries, which would have blocked the state’s 1.7 million unaffiliated voters from helping to select the GOP’s 2022 general election candidates. The vote, taken at a meeting in Pueblo of the party’s central committee members, was 241 opposed to […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Colorado redistricting commissioners mull big changes to latest draft of congressional map
Blowback on a proposal that would place northwest Colorado and Boulder in the same congressional district has Colorado’s Independent Congressional Redistricting Commission considering significant changes to the latest draft of the state’s U.S. House map released Friday. That map, the first plan based on 2020 census data, would also create a southern district and draw […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Economy, Education, News, Politics and Government
More than 36,000 Colorado kids from low-income families could miss out on the Child Tax Credit, advocates fear
More than 36,000 Colorado children could lose out on a historic expansion of the federal Child Tax Credit because their families don’t file income taxes with the IRS. The tax credit, which is temporarily expanded this year through funding from the federal coronavirus stimulus package, known as the American Rescue Plan, is being hailed as […]