Make it obvious

Climate change, caused by global warming, is on us like a runaway freight train. Things are getting worse and faster. We aren’t making the changes that are needed to change the situation. Most of the greenhouse gas produced in the U.S. comes from vehicles. Something has to be done about that.

Americans buy some 17 million vehicles every year. The average lifespan of a new vehicle is 12 years. That is 12 more years of pollution. Electric vehicles are coming but are currently a small percentage. Watch television and you are bombarded by commercials about driving gasoline burning cars doing everything from driveways to tearing up mountain meadows. Any ads for electric?

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Oil companies and car makers are completely happy about selling these cars. We know now these industries knew about global warming and kept the information from the public to keep making huge profits.

As I watch these cars roll by my office window it strikes me that I don’t see any evidence of the pollution coming out of the tailpipe. We don’t see it or smell it.

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So here is the idea du jour.

Let’s add a material to the gas or to the exhaust that produces colored smoke and a noxious smell. Let’s call a spade a spade. Car exhausts are killing us. People drive around like they aren’t doing anything wrong at all. It is not so. That has to stop, now!

Patrick Hunter

Carbondale

Call out to independents

Here’s a call out to all unaffiliated voters in Colorado’s Third Congressional District: Vote in the Republican primary in June to nominate a Republican candidate for U.S. Representative not named Lauren Boebert.

Republicans have held that seat for 24 of the last 30 years. After redistricting, it has gone from R+7 to R+9. The reality is whoever wins the Republican primary will likely win the general election — as in 12 of the last 15 elections.

Unaffiliated voters joining forces with moderate Republicans can nominate a candidate to better represent the middle majority rather than the far-right minority. But it’s going to take unaffiliated voters coming out in force. Don’t let the far-right pick the candidate. The Third District is more diverse than that and deserves better.

The 2020 primary was decided by only 10,000 out of 110,000 votes.

District 3 has 230,000 (42%) registered Unaffiliated voters compared to 170,000 (31%) Republicans and 135,000 (25%) Democrats. The Unaffiliated have the numbers — they just have to vote.

Spread the word to all your Unaffiliated friends: Vote in the Republican primary and make Lauren Boebert a one-term Congresswoman.

Remember, the primary you choose to vote in has no effect on which party you can vote for in the general election.

Brenda Freeburn

Gunnison

R2, city are responding

Thank you to Jennifer Vanian for her February 2 letter encouraging us to put “the fire evacuation plan on the table.” The 480 Donegan project team is setting the table now to share details of Glenwood Springs’ updated fire evacuation management plan, which was submitted to City Council on Oct. 14, 2021.

Regardless if 480 Donegan is developed, an updated emergency evacuation plan remains necessary for the safe egress of residents and the associated revitalization of West Glenwood.

The approved annexation of 480 Donegan includes a requirement that an evacuation plan is in place before any resident moves in. A successful annexation will see R2 Partners assisting the city’s planning efforts by providing an additional exit route, providing land for a new fire station and paying $100,000 towards planning and infrastructure.

The city is leading emergency evacuation planning efforts, including working with the CDOT on I-70 and SH 82 emergency egress and traffic control. The plans also call for added I-70 access points at Storm King Road in West Glenwood and at West First Street in North Glenwood. Additionally, the city is looking at State Highway 82 traffic mitigation at the County Road 154 exit (Westbank) to control downvalley traffic during an emergency.

Beginning Feb. 7, please visit 480Donegan.com for more information on this project as well as details on city’s updated fire evacuation plan efforts.

Barry Rosenberg, R2 Partners

Glenwood Springs

Local climate coverage could improve

I’m a climate geek who’s just about had his fill of climate information. I get regular emails from 350.org, the Climate Reality Project, and Fridays for the Future. National publications like the Washington Post and the New York Times send me issues containing nothing but climate news.

Statewide, the news outlet Colorado Sun does an excellent job covering climate matters. The Roaring Fork Valley papers are certainly doing better at describing the impacts of climate change than they did, say, ten years ago. Recent events such as the devastating wildfires demand it. There is, however, room for improvement.

I have some questions I would like the local reporters to ask of the valley government authorities:

Are you considering building codes with a natural gas ban for heating and appliances?

Do you have plans to order existing buildings to be retrofitted to all electric with no gas?

Will you require all buildings be net zero with solar panels?

Is your fleet becoming all electric vehicles?

Are you working with the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority to expand routes to facilitate public transportation rather than individual automobiles spewing carbon dioxide all over the valley?

How many uncapped orphaned gas wells emitting methane are in western Garfield County and what do you plan to do about them?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, why not?

Don’t worry, I’m not going to unsubscribe from all those climate-related emails. I’m still committed to finding out as much as I can about this most important issue in the world and leaving this planet in at least as good a shape as I found it. But my journalistic background requires I ask for more inclusive reporting on the subject than our local media provides.

Fred Malo Jr.

Carbondale

Can CD3 swap Boebert for Cheney?

And now ladies and gentleman, our civics lesson for today from our esteemed 3rd Congressional Representative, in her own words:

“The Constitution is not evolving. To say that spits in the face of every single one of our founders.”

Definition of evolve: “to change or develop slowly often into a better, more complex, or more advanced state: to develop by a process of evolution.”

Now, as many have already advised Boebert Barbie, if the Constitution hasn’t and is not in the process of evolving, she would not be where she is today. Heck, she couldn’t even vote for herself. As many have also noted, this country didn’t even get out of the 1700s without eleven (11) additions to the Constitution.

To put it bluntly, her statement is a perfect example of a “non-sequitur.”

Can we swap Barbie for Liz Cheney?

Please?

Larry Scheid

Grand Junction

Stand up for small business

Another small business closed.

How many local businesses have we lost since the beginning of this? The owners and employees of these businesses were valuable community members. These were businesses that added to the character of our town. They were part of the valley’s heart and blood. Our responses: the mandates, the many regulations, and the instillment of constant fear on the people, have made it impossible for certain business models to survive. And this closing of unique and valuable small businesses is only one repercussion out of so many created by those in power dictating how we act. This is ONE issue. But it is one that hits home for me and breaks my heart. To watch people that I love, people that work extremely hard, people that have put years into something and previously thrived, now have no other choice but to close their doors. The government, our elected leaders, are supposed to be working for the people. Could we not have included the individuals for which these decisions were going to impact so greatly in the conversation and allowed them to help in forming a plan to deal with our current situation? Do the leaders not trust the community for which they are working for?

There must be some things we can all agree upon. During the last couple years, people in positions of power have taken advantage of the situation and redirected wealth like we have never seen before. The middle class no longer exists. Small businesses are rapidly dying. At some point we must stand up. We must acknowledge and speak to the pressing issues that have been created by our hasty responses to the circumstance. We must address all of the major issues. We have to demand a different course of actions if we want a different result. Unless… we are satisfied with working for the 1%, living in a town run by the big companies, with no locally owned restaurants, retail stores, gyms, etc.

Brittney Rippy

Glenwood Springs

Masks must go

This pandemic must come to an end and be the endemic that is now is. Of course people are still getting sick and dying from COVID-19, but people are still dying from the flu and cancer and many other diseases. We have long lived with a myriad of illnesses and deaths in the world, but through it all we were able to smile. We again need to smile and show our smiles to the people whom we serve at restaurants, hotels and in the grocery stores. We need people to know we appreciate them. Children need to laugh and we need to not only hear their infectious laughs but we need to see their smiles when we have taught them something new in school. Life is not worth living unless we can live it 100%. We can not continue being a civilization without an end to this. It’s time to end these mask mandates and allow people to smile again. It’s simply time.

Douglas Brown

New Castle

What about those 27 amendments?

Republican U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert recently tweeted, “The Constitution is not evolving. To say that spits in the face of every single one of our founders.” The last time I checked, the U.S. Constitution has 27 Amendments. It has always been evolving, as per the founders’ design.

Supporting a lawless ex-president and an insurrection to overturn a free and fair election is an example of spitting in the face of every single one of our founders.

Now go read the Constitution, Rep. Boebert; and the 27 Amendments to it. It’s your job to know it, after all, you took an oath to support and defend it.

JM Jesse

Glenwood Springs