Steve Pomerance

On Sunday morning, I hiked up to Anemone Point, about 1,000 feet above the west end of Pearl Street. On top, I could see the Arapahoe Peaks to the west and the horizon to the east. Amazingly, it was crystal clear. This was a delightful comparison to how it looks normally, with the horrendous yellow and brown smog that’s now endemic along the Front Range. So, I wondered: Why is Polis now pushing for Colorado to get $1 billion ( per the Denver Post ) in federal subsidies to support becoming the nation’s quantum tech hub? Why make things worse by encouraging yet more job growth, adding pressure on the housing market, while increasing traffic, CO2 emissions and air pollution, and further stressing our limited water supply along with the state’s budget with expected tax breaks from Colorado’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade? (They can’t seem to resist giving away our money.) This would be on top of the new Polis 2026 Roadmap that pushes again for massive market-pr...

The nasty postcards have exposed a gaping hole in Boulder’s election laws. I’m referring to the nasty anti-Yates postcards sent out by the Working Families Party promoting Nicole Speer or Aaron Brockett as Boulder’s first directly elected mayor. When the first card showed up over two weeks ago, ten citizens (including me) immediately wrote to Nicole Speer and Aaron Brockett, formally requesting “that you IMMEDIATELY disclaim any involvement and IMMEDIATELY repudiate this organization’s attempts to influence Boulder’s elections.” Nicole was silent. Aaron posted something on social media. The city council (who were copied on this initial communication) did not take a stand against these ugly, partisan attacks. And WFP’s campaign continued — with a second large postcard, web ads, and “polling” phone calls — and very likely shifted the close outcome in Brockett’s favor. Both former council member Crystal Gray and I immediately filed formal complaints with the City over WFP’s failure ...

I guess that, with my math and engineering background, I’m always looking at the numbers. These recent news stories got me going: On Dec. 2, The Denver Post covered RTD’s report on its July/August  “Zero Fare for Cleaner Air” program.  Allowing people to ride for free in July and August cost RTD $15.2 million in lost fares and other expenses. It reduced emissions by more than 6 million pounds (3,000 tons). But Colorado’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Roadmap calls for a CO2 emissions reduction of 12.7 million tons per year by 2030. The Zero Fare program’s reduction, if done for a full year, would reduce emissions by only 0.14% of what’s needed. This reduction cost is around $5,000 per ton, about 27 times the social cost of carbon dioxide, currently $185 per ton, according to  Resources for the Future’s 2022 report .  Zero Fare reduced vehicle miles traveled by 145,000 miles per day, almost unnoticeable compared to the Denver area total of around 84 million miles per...