C’DALE TRUSTEES NOT PLAYING NICE
CARBONDALE – Several members of the Carbondale Board of Trustees are promising to be nice and defuse tensions that have resulted in sharp exchanges of opinion. The trustees have met twice with Elyce Ackerman-Casselberry, northwest regional manager for the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, in efforts to mediate their differences. Mayor Stacey Bernot says consultation was needed because when certain issues have arisen at trustee meetings, tensions between individual trustees also have risen, sometimes resulting in sharp exchanges.
ASPEN FOOD TAX REFUND
ASPEN- Aspen residents who lived in the city limits last year and are registered to vote are now eligible for a $50 food sales tax refund. The city created food sales tax refunds as an incentive for voters to support a sales tax referendum. The refund was intended to reimburse voters for the approximate amount of sales tax they would pay annually on grocery purchases after voters approved a 1 percent city sales tax.
DEM CONGRESSMAN WANTS TO CLOSE DRILLING LOOPHOLE
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) – U.S. Rep. Jared Polis has introduced a bill that he says would close a loophole in federal law that exempts oil and gas drilling from certain provisions of the federal Clean Air Act. The Boulder Democrat says he wants to make sure that wells drilled with a hydraulic fracturing process are not exempt from federal oversight. Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is a gas drilling process that blasts chemical-laden water deep into the ground. Supporters say the process is safe, while opponents say the technique pollutes groundwater and the chemicals are unsafe.
WESTERN SLOPE URANIUM MINING DISUSSED
GRAND JUNCTION (AP) – The U.S. Department of Energy is again proposing opening up 25,000 acres of land in western Colorado to uranium mining. The department released the proposal Friday for 31 tracts it manages in Mesa, Montrose and San Miguel counties. The area helped supply the uranium used to develop the first U.S. atomic bombs that ended World War II. But the mining boom collapsed with the end of the Cold War and the problems facing nuclear energy starting with Three Mile Island in 1979. A federal judge in 2011 blocked the energy department’s plans to relaunch mining there, saying it needed to conduct a detailed analysis of the plan and take public comment. The energy department will hold hearings on the proposal during the week of April 22 in Grand Junction, Montrose, Telluride and Naturita.
