Bill Ritter

Bill Ritter must think you have a bottomless wallet.

He just announced he’s going to force Colorado utilities to get 30% of their energy from expensive “renewable” sources.

Yes, at a time when more and more people are struggling to pay their bills and employers must lay people off to meet costs, Bill Ritter has announced a massive statewide increase in utility bills.

Why would he do that?

Two words — “green” speculators.

You see, a lot of radical Green activists saw the media’s fascination with “going green” and “green energy” and saw a chance to make a quick buck. Hey, I’m a capitalist. I don’t fault them. But where we part ways is what they decided to do when they realized “green” energy is expensive, inefficient and no one wants it.

Rather than cut their losses and get out of the market, these speculators decided to rig the market by forcing people to buy their product.

They are now leaning hard on radical Green politicians to keep inflating the “green energy” bubble by issuing so-called “renewable energy standards” that give people no choice but to hand cash to “green energy” speculators.

These so-called “renewable energy standards” are nothing more than a bailout of failed speculators, a way for radical Green politicians to use government to transfer wealth from average citizens to green speculators.

It’s the exact same thing as if Obama had forced Americans to buy a second house to inflate the housing bubble. Ritter doesn’t have to worry about citizen outrage over their utility bills being increased to bail out green speculators. After his oil and gas tax hikes wrecked the state economy and sent Colorado’s jobs pouring into Wyoming and Texas, his rock-bottom poll numbers forced him to abandon his re-election bid.

But his radical Green ally, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, hopes to continue the Ritter Agenda. He just announced he’s running for Colorado governor.

I — and a lot of other angry Coloradans — have one question for John Hickenlooper…

Will you repeal the Ritter Energy Price Hike plan if you win in November?

Many of those “angry Coloradans” are members of Western Tradition Partnership. We’re not going to take this lying down.

Hickenlooper’s record doesn’t give us much reason for optimism. As Denver mayor he sank $15 million in city funds into a New York City-based “green jobs” firm.

Oh, and the newly-appointed CEO of this New York City firm was Peter Chapman — Hickenlooper’s economic policy advisor (see earlier post here for details).

How did Hickenlooper’s tax-funded investment into a “green jobs” firm go? According to the Denver Post, “the 2007 contract with Denver requires Seedco to create 153 new jobs, with a minimum of 75. To date, the number is 38 new jobs. Denver responded by dumbing down the requirement for 2009, asking for 83 new jobs. Six months into the year, Seedco has created only six new jobs.”

And Chapman is no longer CEO. After just one year he “split town” and took a position in North Carolina.

So you can see why Western Tradition Partnership members are concerned about Ritter’s Energy Price Hike plan to bail out the speculators looking to make a lot of “green” at taxpayer expense. Under Hickenlooper it could become a permanent entitlement.

Will Hickenlooper promise to repeal the Energy Price Hike scheme?  That’s a question he needs to answer quickly.

_______

Help WTP in our mission of defeating the radical environmentalists’ agenda and promoting economically sustainable natural resource and land use policy while protecting access and private property rights, by clicking here.

And won’t you take a minute to make us your Facebook friend?

Just hours after announcing new plans to shut down energy development on federal lands, Washington, D.C. insiders report Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has been given the green light to run for Colorado governor. (http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/01/06/salazar_bid_fine_with_white_house.html)

And with the power of the White House behind him, you can bet Salazar has an inside track to the nomination.

But why would he give up a cushy job in D.C. to roll the dice and gamble on winning a tougher job in Denver?

Could it all be about who has control over Colorado’s state-controlled land?

You see, Salazar’s announcement that he was trying to shut down energy development (and the jobs and revenue it would create) only covers federal lands.

But radical Greens would love nothing more than to get state-controlled lands in their grasp as well. And they are working hard to shut down all energy development in Colorado, despite the fact it will send thousands of Coloradans to the unemployment line and send taxes skyrocketing and budget deficits spiral out of control.

Is Ken Salazar ready to serve up Colorado’s taxpayer-owned lands to radical Green interests, destroying jobs, raising taxes and making utilities more expensive in the process?

WTP will be keeping an eye on this development.