Recent Articles from Bart Taylor
The Roberts surprise
Obamacare is constitutional. So says Chief Justice John Roberts, who has surprised even veteran SCOTUS observers twice in the last week. But for the GOP, hope is high that while a battle may have been lost, the war might still be won. Mitt Romney now has his singular campaign issue – the repeal of...
Bureau of Reclamation releases more Colorado River supply & demand data
As I've noted in previous posts, the Bureau of Reclamation will release the results of a multi-year study of the Colorado River this summer. In the run-up to a comprehensive release of findings the Bureau is publishing interim data including last week's “Technical Memorandum C – Quantification of...
A new business agenda on water
With a slim snowpack serving only to reiterate Colorado's long-term water challenge, its clear that reaching out to business to talk about water is increasingly important – but doing so in a meaningful way is difficult. Generally, business hasn't been involved in the water discussion. There's eve...
Icebergs one solution to Colorado River water woes?
What do icebergs and mountains have in common? Water, of course. And in the eyes of one imaginative contributor, both would be a future source of water here, in the Colorado River Basin. Such is the scope of solutions offered in response to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s forthcoming Colorado Riv...
Is this global warming?
Water planners in the Western United States are concerned climate change is diminishing precipitation throughout the Colorado River Basin. The big fear is that as warming intensifies, the decline will accelerate. As a practical matter, this possibility has convinced many that significant steps nee...
Front Range business a no-show in water pipeline imbroglio
Last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, denied developer Aaron Million a permit to pipe water from Wyoming's Flaming Gorge reservoir to Colorado's Front-Range. Million and Frank Jaeger, Parker's respected water official and South Metro Water Supply Authority board member, are...
Western states press for a closer reading of the Colorado River Compact
Ninety years old this year, the Colorado River Compact is more relevant and consequential than any time in its history. That says a lot. Sharing water within its collaborative, progressive framework, the Southwest blossomed, and its sustained influence on our current water dialogue is immeasurable...
When a statewide water plan is not
Colorado is well-served by a cadre of water officials, many of whom gathered late last month at the annual Colorado Water Congress convention in what’s being called the “Year of Water,” or Colorado Water 2012. No doubt many will use the designation to bring attention to the considerable challenges that lie ahead for the state’s […]
Utah taps its Colorado River Compact allocation for nuclear power
Last month, Utah’s State Engineer approved the transfer of an established water right on the Green River, from the San Juan County (Utah) Water Conservancy District to Blue Castle Holdings. In many cases, such a transfer wouldn’t muster a second look from observers in Utah or neighbors around the Western U.S. Not so here. Two […]
China’s winds of change
The ongoing debate about energy policy often overlooks the reality that in addition to coal and natural gas, U.S. renewable energy resources are world-class. Take wind. The top global wind energy resource resides squarely in the American heartland. This isn’t lost on global wind companies including Goldwind, China’s top private producer of wind-power technologies. For […]
China’s investment revolution
What if you started a revolution and no one came? Wang Wei, arguably China’s most influential businessman of the past decade, may have contemplated the question eight years ago when he launched China’s first mergers and acquisitions association. Years of service had earned him a comfortable path to retirement as a senior and well-respected governmental […]
Report from China: The land of cleantech opportunity
My first thought on landing in China was that we’d come for the right reason. We’ve flown here to finalize a content partnership with China Dealmaker magazine. After flying 6,000 miles, we’d descended to a thousand feet or so, and I still couldn’t make out terra firma in the thick soup of fog and smog […]