Tuesday letters: policy, climate, local impacts and more

Colorado deserves attention and action

Happy New Year, or maybe not. Even if you’re not personally affected, your actions matter to keep Coloradans healthy and safe.

There’s some good news. The Denver Broncos won the AFC West for the first time in a decade. Rep. Jeff Hurd defied Republican Party leadership by voting to extend health care subsidies for millions of Americans, overriding the president’s veto.

The bad news is plentiful. The Trump administration has targeted five Democratic states, including Colorado, with a freeze on funds for agencies, counties and nonprofits that help our poorest families with monthly welfare payments, child care and job training. The administration has also demanded information on Coloradans who receive food and other assistance.

If that’s not enough to upset you, the administration is seeking to pull funding from freight rail corridors. Compared to trucks, freight rail improves fuel efficiency, produces lower emissions, is safer and reduces road traffic. The administration also wants to dismantle a global leader in earth systems scientific research, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, located in Boulder. Additionally, the administration plans to open an ICE detention center in Hudson, Colorado.

I urge you to stay current on events impacting our state. Please speak up, Coloradans.

Nancy Peterson, Carbondale

Energy policy grounded in reality

Lots of news about energy these days, including the executive order to keep Craig Unit 1 limping along (Post Independent, Jan. 2). According to that story, Rep. Hurd’s office stated that Colorado energy policy “has been driven by ideology instead of reality.” Actually, as far as I can tell, the planned closure is one stage of a series of realistic and well-engineered actions in the reduction of Colorado’s CO2 pollution.

“Ideology” did not create what we’ve seen out our windows recently and what our thermometers have been showing. It’s also not that “the climate has always been changing” or similar disinformation. It’s “reality” that CO2 from burning fossil fuels and CH4 from various sources are triple-glazing the planetary greenhouse.

In the 1800s, following in the footsteps of Ben Franklin, citizen scientists measured the reality of the heat-trapping effects of “greenhouse gases” using analog thermometers, scales and glass tubes. Their “ideology” was a desire to understand nature. One even accurately calculated the gases’ effects on the Earth’s energy balance.

Balance is delicate. When loading a trailer, even with tons already on it, moving a sack of cement a few feet can alter the balance and send the hitch flying. Likewise, a seemingly tiny change in the heat-absorbing gases will change the planet’s temperature.

The engineers and bean counters at our utilities understand how to reduce CO2 from electricity generation. First, by adding wind turbines while reducing coal combustion when the wind blows. Now, with more wind turbines and solar, the baseload coal plants are too inflexible to coordinate with the variable natural electricity sources. Baseload coal needs to be replaced with storage and flexible gas backup. Utilities worldwide are following the same strategy.

Was it policy “driven by ideology” that required reductions in power plant pollution from soot, acid rain and toxic metals decades ago? The utilities eventually responded with baghouses and scrubbers that worked. What they are doing now works, though I think we could do better.

Frederick Porter
Carbondale

Song of protest against ICE violence

To all people in this country,

The murder of civilians by ICE and the U.S. military when we are not at war is a horrible crime. ICE is out of control, not just arresting criminals, but terrorizing and murdering. This song is now sung by grandmothers across the U.S. It was written by Paula Miller in Piedmont, North Carolina. It says it all. Try singing along. I bet your kids know the tune and can sing with you.

Unmask ICE
Lyrics by Paula Miller, written July 14, 2025
Gaggle: Piedmont Raging Grannies
Tune: “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt”

Un-mask the men who are called ICE! Masks are so coward-ly!
Whenever ICE goes out, the people need to shout
“Show your faces and let the public see!”
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la

We’ve never had secret police! We can’t start that now!
Americans don’t trust masked men who really must
Show their faces and let the people see.
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la

ICE now is Trump’s se-cret police, designed by Stephen Miller.
These guys worked to cre-ate a mil-i-tary state
To intimidate and terrify us all.
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la

Dis-band this group of ter-ror-ists, Trump’s own KKK.
Restore our civil rights to due process, and let’s fight
MAGA’s anti-‘mer-i-can coup!
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la

Illene Pevec, Carbondale

Child care does not justify massive development

Contrary to Sarah Brown’s letter of Jan. 13, additional child care planned at Harvest Roaring Fork is no reason to build 1,500 units when, if approved at that density, any child care availability will most assuredly be taken by the development’s residents. Circular reasoning at its best.

Pam Szedelyi, Glenwood Springs

Holy Cross Energy demand charge is inequitable

I am writing to express my opposition to the demand charge proposed by Holy Cross Energy (HCE). While HCE frames this new charge as a way to “align rates with grid costs,” the reality is that the new charge is regressive and places a disproportionate burden on working families.

HCE’s proposal imposes an additional $1 per kilowatt charge for electricity used based on the highest 15 minutes of electricity used in any month. If a customer uses multiple appliances at the same time, the kilowatts used increase and so does the penalty. If the 15-minute usage is 12 kilowatts, the new demand charge is $12 on your monthly bill.

Most working parents will have the highest usage when they return home to cook dinner, bathe children, run laundry, etc. These are not luxury activities that can be easily “staggered” or shifted to nonevening hours. Residents of multifamily units or apartments without separate billing meters may find themselves paying the charge for high-demand neighbors or the combined electricity use for the entire complex regardless of whether they conserve energy.

Under this new structure, a single 15-minute spike in a month will significantly inflate a customer’s bill. The only way to avoid the new demand charge is to stagger the use of household appliances over the course of the day and sign up for “time-of-use” billing. This penalizes working families while those with the luxury of flexible hours or those who can work from home can avoid these costs. This is inequitable.

HCE claims these changes give members “more control.” In truth, they shift higher costs onto working families who do not have the ability to perform life’s basic functions outside of evening hours when they return home from work.

I urge the HCE Board of Directors to reconsider this regressive approach before their final decision on Feb. 18, 2026, and to find a more equitable way to manage grid demand. Members can comment on the proposed plan until Feb. 6 at holycross.com/rates.

Siri Olsen, Glenwood Springs