Featured

Pond Scum for Petroleum?

A July 5, 2008, Denver Post editorial, “Pond Scum to the Rescue?” touted a joint effort by ConocoPhillips and the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels to use algae (“pond scum”) as a biofuel alternative. The Post claims rather optimistically that this experimental process could “[fight] global warming and the OPEC oil cartel in one stroke,” and that we should “stop using ‘pond scum’ as an insult and start using it to save our wallets and our planet.” Such a rosy prediction is, with all due respect, overstated. To the contrary, the problem with oil is not the lack of alternatives. It is significant government restrictions on oil exploration right here at home that artificially limits supply and needlessly leads to higher prices.

While alternative fuels are largely limited to research and development, expansion of oil production in our own country would have a vastly greater effect on our national and economic security as a nation. And Colorado will become a major source of that security if we will decide to implement reasonable policies for energy exploration. The problem is some of our elected officials are putting up roadblocks which are nothing more than environmental alarmism. We need forward thinking in support of Colorado’s well-established, leadership role in the energy economy while maintaining our commitment to environmental stewardship. Read more »

Politics

Energy

Pond Scum for Petroleum?

A July 5, 2008, Denver Post editorial, “Pond Scum to the Rescue?” touted a joint effort by ConocoPhillips and the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels to use algae (“pond scum”) as a biofuel alternative. The Post claims rather optimistically that this experimental process could “[fight] global warming and the OPEC oil cartel in one stroke,” and that we should “stop using ‘pond scum’ as an insult and start using it to save our wallets and our planet.” Such a rosy prediction is, with all due respect, overstated. To the contrary, the problem with oil is not the lack of alternatives. It is significant government restrictions on oil exploration right here at home that artificially limits supply and needlessly leads to higher prices.

While alternative fuels are largely limited to research and development, expansion of oil production in our own country would have a vastly greater effect on our national and economic security as a nation. And Colorado will become a major source of that security if we will decide to implement reasonable policies for energy exploration. The problem is some of our elected officials are putting up roadblocks which are nothing more than environmental alarmism. We need forward thinking in support of Colorado’s well-established, leadership role in the energy economy while maintaining our commitment to environmental stewardship. Read more »

Mortgage Crisis

Privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-WSJ

The Wall Street Journal’s Holman Jenkins, Jr. makes a strong case for Privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

Sell off their regional underwriting offices to private investors. Don’t heed any guff about how Fannie and Freddie are “vital to the functioning of the U.S. housing market.” Houses would still need to be financed, and the private sector would jump at a chance to get the solid, triple-A business that Fannie and Freddie now monopolize. Indeed, there’s evidence that their implicit subsidy never flowed through to homebuyers anyway, but was captured by their shareholders and managers.

Business World - WSJ.com