Steve Pomerance

A few months ago, I discussed “Disruptive Challenges,” a paper published by the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the research arm of a large group of investor-owned utilities. The paper accurately describes renewable energy as potentially disrupting the business model used by these utilities to extract high profits with little risk. Disruption is now manifesting in Europe, where the growth of renewables has been extremely rapid. Apparently the initial subsidies led to lots of installations, which reduced overall costs, which then allowed subsidies to be reduced. According to a recent article in The Economist entitled “How to lose a half a trillion euros,” market valuation of European utilities has dropped by over half since 2008. One major factor is the inability of their coal-powered generation plants to integrate with the variable output of renewables. Because the Europeans require utilities to accept all the renewable energy generated, these slow-ramping plants are becoming fo...

Tuesday’s Boulder City Council vote to limit trail building on Anemone Hill, to exclude mountain bikes from its north and east sides, and to ask the Open Space board to study a mountain bike link up out of Boulder Canyon and then west to Four Mile Canyon, was exactly the right thing to do. Anemone Hill is the long ridge between Boulder Canyon and Sunshine Canyon (the west extension of Mapleton Avenue.)  Anemone Hill has a rich and diverse wildlife habitat, especially on its north side, which faces Sunshine Canyon, where most of the rejected trails were proposed to be built. Indicator species (which give information on the health of the habitat) that live in that area include Northern goshawk, Abert’s squirrel, black bear, and wild turkey. Building trails every couple of hundred yards on the ridge’s north face would have destroyed much of this important habitat. The east side, because it is so accessible from Settler’s Park off Canyon and Centennial Trailhead off Mapleton, i...

In spite of how much I like mountain biking, I do not want to see mountain bikes allowed in the area west of Broadway/93, south of Baseline/Chautauqua and north of Eldorado Springs Drive. For those mountain bikers who will immediately question my credentials, I`ve ridden mountain bikes for decades, including the Hall and Heil Ranch rides, the Doudy Draw area, Walker Ranch, Monarch Pass, Fruita, Moab, including Slick Rock, Porcupine Rim and Poison Spider, Aspen-Crested Butte and back, and so on. The relatively pristine area of prairie and foothills between the south edge of town and South Boulder Creek offers a unique experience of peace and serenity. It`s a trip back into the past. Just walk west on the Lower Big Bluestem Trail from the trailhead south of town on Colorado 93 just north of the trailer park. Within minutes you are out in the prairie, looking west at the mountains, with only tall grass around you. The vista is huge, and even if you see another hiker, they are dwarfed ...