Vote to Support Coal Creek

VOTE TO SUPPORT COAL CREEK

The Coal Creek Watershed Coalition is competing for a grant from MillerCoors and River Network. The Coalition is one of 8 finalists from an initial pool of 32 applicants. The top 4 vote-getters will receive $10,000. Funds from this grant will be used to do some cleanup at the Forest Queen Mine, conduct a study of how Magnesium Chloride might be affecting Coal Creek and to work with the Office for Resource Efficiency (ORE) with an educational program on water conservation.

The finalists will be picked by popular vote. COAL CREEK WATERSHED COALITION NEEDS YOUR VOTE! It will only take a minute. High Country Citizens' Alliance appreciates all of you and your friends voting in support of Coal Creek. Please help spread the word. Votes must be received by March 6th.

This is the direct link to the voting form:

http://www.rivernetwork.org/forms/vote-millercoors-grants

Regards,

Steve Glazer
HCCA Water Program Director
President, Coal Creek Watershed Coalition

COGCC Rules in Jeopardy - Act Now !

Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission

Rules in Jeopardy

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Contact Rep. Kathleen Curry to support her

in opposing HB 1255

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Vote Scheduled for Friday, February 20th at 1:30 pm

Colorado is on the front edge of a dramatic oil and gas drilling boom, necessitating the updated oversight of drilling. Since 1999, drilling permits are up 600% and projections call for 120,000 new wells to be drilled in Colorado in the next 30 years.

In early December, the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) updated its regulations by and 8-0 vote. The unanimous, 8-0 vote demonstrates the consensus achieved on the Commission in support of these rules. HCCA realizes it took tremendous compromise to reach an agreement on these rules. The COGCC is to be commended for the enormous amount of time they spent on this process and for ensuring the final protections achieve a fair balance. However, attempts to gut these regulations are under way and the updated rules need your voice to keep them in place.

Ultimately these updated rules will help protect Colorado's air/water quality and wildlife habitat while still allowing oil & gas companies to continue to operate in the state. Other noteworthy improvements in the new rules include:

• Establishing a 300 foot no drill buffer around streams that serve public drinking water supplies.

• Requiring companies to keep track of and disclose to state and emergency responders chemicals they use in drilling operations.

Colorado State Representative Kathleen Curry has been working tirelessly to make sure the COGCC's efforts don't get thwarted by misguided attempts to scale back the new rules. The introduction of HB 1255 by Cory Gardner (R-Wray) is one such effort that would gut wildlife protections and eliminate important feedback from public health and wildlife experts in oil & gas drilling.

Please show your support for Rep. Curry by contacting her TODAY to thank her for her leadership on this issue and ask her to oppose HB 1255. Write a letter to the editor of the Gunnison Times and Crested Butte News in support of her work on the COGCC rules.

Email, Call or Write:

State Representative Kathleen Curry

200 E. Colfax

Denver, CO 80203

Capitol Phone: (303) 866-2945

E-mail: kathleen.curry.house@state.co.us

Gunnison Times

218 N. Wisconsin

Gunnison, CO 81230

E-mail: editor@gunnisontimes.com

Crested Butte News

PO Box 369

Crested Butte, CO 81224

E-mail: editorial@crestedbuttenews.com

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UPDATE

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Thanks to your letters and your support of Rep. Curry, HB 1255 was killed in committee of February 20th in a 7-6 vote.

32nd Annual Red Lady Salvation Ball

The 32^nd Annual Red Lady Salvation will take place on Saturday, March 7, at The Eldo and will feature Delta blues sensation Papa Mali, with opener, local favorite Second Time Around. Tickets are $25 and include a one-year membership with High Country Citizens’ Alliance (HCCA)! Doors will open at 8:00 pm.

The Red Lady Ball is HCCA’s annual fundraiser and membership drive to support protection of the natural world that surrounds us. The evening is highlighted by the coronation of the Red Lady, a tradition of this long-time community event. Nominations are currently being accepted from the public, so if you know of someone who should be the next Red Lady, please nominate her or him. For more information on our website please click HERE.

Red Lady candidates should be Gunnison Valley residents who have made a commitment towards protection of the natural ecosystems of the Upper Gunnison River Basin. The next Red Lady can be male or female, no matter their age. The Red Lady makes appearances during parades and festivals, various community functions, and also volunteers throughout the year representing HCCA’s work to keep Red Lady (Mt. Emmons) free of a molybdenum mine. Nominations can be either phoned in to 349.7104 or emailed to office@hccaonline.org until Monday, February 23. Please include a sentence or two about your nomination.

The evening also features a raffle of fabulous prizes donated by local and regional businesses, such as vacation lodging, nordic ski passes, massages, wine, lunches, dinners, artwork, outdoors equipment and clothing. Tickets for the raffle go on sale Monday, March 2, in front of the Crested Butte Post Office and at the HCCA office in the Depot, 716 Elk Avenue. Raffle tickets are $5 each or 3 for $10. Watch for red-clad ticket sellers outside the Post Office to get your chance to win great prizes.

Note: We have posted this as an event on Facebook - Click here to view the event and RSVP.

HCCA is on Twitter!

High Country Citizens' Alliance has a Twitter page! Join us as a "friend" or "follower" on Twitter. CLICK HERE to go to our Twitter Page.

Twitter is a social networking service that allows you to answer the question, "What am I doing right now?" HCCA will be using Twitter to update the community on what we are doing both online with blog posts, video updates, facebook updates and website updates as well as in the community with local events and outreach programs.

You do not need a Twitter account to view our page but you will if you want to become a friend or follower.

Once on our page, please register to setup your own Twitter account, become a friend or follower and stay informed with HCCA happenings in the Gunnison Valley.

And please spread the word that HCCA is on Twitter!

Has anyone noticed 2.5 million dollars lying around the Gunnison Valley?

Has anyone noticed 2.5 million dollars lying around the Gunnison Valley?

You read the title correctly - no need to clean your glasses or rub your weary eyes.  Someone seems to have misplaced two and a half million bucks and we ought to help them find it.  Who, you ask?  Why the Mt. Emmons Project of course - our very own Thompson Creek Metals Company and US Energy.  You may have recently read about Thompson Creek’s one million dollar payment to US Energy at the end of 2008.  US Energy confirmed this payment in a January 12^th press release, saying:

“…the January 1, 2009 $1 million option payment was paid by Thompson Creek Metals Company USA on January 2, 2009 on behalf of Mt. Emmons Moly Company pursuant to the Exploration, Development and Mine Operating Agreement signed in August 2008.” 

Oddly missing from that press release was ‘the rest of the story.’  The rest of the story is that Thompson Creek’s agreement with US Energy goes beyond the simple payment of a million bucks a year.  (Simple for them maybe, but that’s another story…)  In fact, Thompson Creek is obligated to another $2.5 million each year in project expenditures.  The agreement says, in part:

“At any time before but no later than December 31, 2008, TCM shall incur at least $2,500,000 in Expenditures on or related to the Property.  … TCM may elect to pay to an interest bearing escrow account on or before a due date specified in Section 6.1(a) the dollar amount equal to any shortfall in Expenditures required to be completed by TCM by such due date in lieu of completing such Expenditures…”

US Energy’s January 12^th press release makes no mention of the fact that Thompson Creek was required spend $2.5 million on the Mt. Emmons Project during 2008 or put that amount away to make up for a shortfall.  It is also interesting to note the complete lack of any substantial work on the Mt. Emmons Project since Thompson Creek came to town.  New decals for the company trucks, fancy new baseball caps for their skeleton staff and a dormant website may have some costs, but surely not $2.5 million.  So the natural question is - where’s the rest of the cash?  In the unlikely event that someone finds that cash lying around, I’d suggest rushing it straight over to US Energy. 

In the perhaps more likely scenario that US Energy and Thompson Creek are playing shell games with their investors’ money and the future of the Gunnison Valley we should all take note of one more example of the Mt. Emmons Project hiding facts and intentions from the public.

USGS Snodgrass Geology Report Released – Comment Now

On Monday January 12, 2009, the US Forest Service (USFS) released a US Geological Survey (USGS) Report on Slope Stability on Snodgrass Mountain. The USGS report is intended to assist Forest Supervisor Charlie Richmond in deciding whether to accept the proposal by Crested Butte Mountain Resort to expand the ski area on to Snodgrass Mountain.

HCCA encourages anyone interested in the geology issue to submit comments by January 22nd. The time for providing public input is now! Comments to the Forest Service will be most effective if they address your geology concerns in your own words. HCCA has identified the following important topics from the USGS report:

The USGS report lists 5 specific analyses that need to be performed before the geology on Snodgrass and its possible consequences can be fully understood:

More deep boreholes and inclinometers are needed for slope stability analysis.

A longer period of record and more piezometers are needed to understand surface water and ground water interactions.

Additional stability analyses are needed.

Further analysis is needed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed drainage measures in reducing ground-water pressures and increasing slope stability.

Analyses are needed to assess the potential for landslides originating on Snodgrass to impact homes in proposed residential developments nearby

The USGS report lists potential risks to human safety, residential property and the environment that could be caused by landslides and debris flows:

Depending on the rate of movement, reactivation of one of these large landslides has slight to moderate potential for causing death and injuries.

Although debris flows are unlikely during ski season, they move rapidly and have great potential for causing deaths and injuries, as well as environmental degradation and property damage.

Debris flows also have great potential to move great distances rapidly, including from National Forest lands to neighboring proposed residential areas.

Please ask Charlie Richmond to postpone a decision on whether to accept a proposal until these studies have been completed and the geology issues resolved.

Please address your comments to:

USDA Forest Service
Forest Supervisor Charlie Richmond
2250 Highway 50
Delta, CO 81416

New Year, New Energy Goals - Obama’s national energy plans and local effects

New Year, New Energy Goals - Obama’s national energy plans and local effects

Proponents say that if implemented, Barack Obama’s New Energy for America plan has the potential to help improve the national economy, create millions of jobs, dramatically decrease pollution and allow us to pass on a healthy environment to future generations.

When it comes to electricity, there are three aspects of President-elect Obama’s energy strategy that would require a positive and dramatic shift. The new presidential administration plans on proposing that 25% of our electricity come from renewable sources by 2025 and that the United States becomes a world leader in fighting climate change, initially by re-engaging with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). Perhaps most significantly, the new administration plans on implementing an economy wide cap and trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050.

So what is a cap and trade program and how does it work? Sightline, a Seattle-based think tank defines it as a system that “enforces an economy-wide limit on greenhouse gas emissions; sets realistic goals for reducing emissions over time; and harnesses the creativity and dynamism of the market to achieve these goals." In simpler terms, the cap limits greenhouse gas emissions and the trade achieves environmental results at the lowest cost. This type of program is credited with dramatically reducing acid rain in the 1990s. The bottom line for coal-fired power plants is that their emissions will be “taxed” like never before and this formerly “cheap” energy source will become much more expensive.

How might you feel the effects here in the Gunnison Valley? Cap and trade programs may significantly affect the ability of Gunnison County Electric Association (GCEA) and Tri-State Generation and Transmission, GCEA’s electricity provider, to fulfill the part of their missions of providing their members (you) with affordable electricity. If Tri-State chooses to continue the pursuit of new coal-fired power plants using 20^th century technology instead of investing in energy efficiency, renewable energy technology and other zero- or low-emitting power plants, electricity users in much of Gunnison County over the long-run likely would be saddled with the increased rates for power that climate legislation would bring. Essentially, it is a near certainty that this new legislation will make old-style coal-based electricity more and more expensive as it assigns a cost to greenhouse gas emissions. In order to safeguard local consumers from increasingly expensive electricity bills, our electricity providers must look to the future and develop strategies to provide us with clean, efficient power and quickly implement local energy efficiency measures.

If you agree that moving away from dated technology like old-style pulverized coal fired power plants is essential to protecting both your long term financial well-being and the environment, you can help this effort locally in several ways. Write a letter to GCEA and Tri-State asking for more electricity produced from renewable sources and increased energy efficiency measures. A letter template is available on our website. You can also participate by attending monthly Alliance for Clean Electricity (ACE) meetings which alternate between Gunnison and Crested Butte. The time, date and location of the meetings are posted here. For more details and a list of how to take action or get involved, visit the Climate and Clean Energy page at www.hccaonline.org. Learn more about cap and trade by viewing the video about how this program defeated acid rain below -

(Video by Environmental Defense Fund)

Chris Menges,

Alliance for Clean Electricity and

Climate and Clean Energy Coordinator at

High Country Citizens' Alliance