Climate Change and Energy:
We believe that humans can and do negatively impact our environment, and that population growth around the world is the main driver of this.

We believe that government must vigorously protect the environment against pollution ( see our page on the environment ) but this is a different issue from climate change.

Temperature data shows that global warming since 2000 has been really small, not extreme.
Sea level rise has been minimal, and the ice caps have not melted as predicted by climate alarmists. In fact, this summer’s ice extent in the arctic was the highest since 2014. Last winter was the snowiest winter in Denver in 37 years.

The IPCC climate models, all based on the General Circulation Model ( GCM ) method, have greatly over-estimated the global temperature increases during the past two decades because they grossly over-estimate the climate sensitivity to CO2. Solar radiation variability and actual impact of water vapor are under-appreciated in the IPCC models.

Rapid elimination of fossil fuels from our energy portfolio is an extreme and dangerous policy that is unnecessary in light of the observed moderate temperature changes and will drive up costs for ALL consumer goods and most certainly will lead to brownouts and blackouts which will endanger lives of the most vulnerable. Europe is on the verge of experiencing a natural gas shortage this winter. Prices for natural gas have risen over 180% this year. This has already caused some factories to shut down including a fertilizer plant. Electricity prices in Europe are soaring and it’s so bad it has caused some protests.

Governor Jared Polis implemented the 2000 foot setback for oil and gas drilling through the Oil and Gas Commission, even though the citizens voted down that proposal in a referendum. The resulting impact on Colorado oil and gas drilling can only be described as punitive.
Increasing our investment in Wind and Solar energy at a modest pace is a reasonable policy, but over-reliance on these energy sources can lead to brown outs and black outs like in Texas and California, which is a big mistake.
We believe that there are constructive state expenditures to mitigate possible consequences from potential further warming, regardless of the cause, such as purchasing more forest fire fighting equipment and better forest management.