U.S. Sen. Salazar: Harness the wind

Click to Enlarge U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar shakes hands with Grand Junction High School students who came to listen to him speak at the Mesa County Courthouse Tuesday morning. Here, he shares a moment with Jasmine Flores, a student enrolled in Shirley Otero’s ethnic studies class. Other students included Jesse Cantrell, Alyssa Hollos, Blanca Lerma, Tiny Cardenas, Chelsea Varela, Maria Martinez, Chrystal Laflen and Thomas F. McComb. MARIJA B. VADER | FREE PRESS

BY MARIJA B. VADER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
February 20, 2008

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U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar pins the Asiatic Pacific Campaign medal to World War II veteran and Grand Junction resident Jack Whitlock. A Marine, Whitlock managed to get out of the war without receiving the medal ... until Tuesday morning. MARIJA B. VADER | FREE PRESS Click to Enlarge

    GRAND JUNCTION — The Western Slope should harness the power of the sun and wind like other areas in the state to catch the wave of renewable resources, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar told a group of western Coloradans Tuesday morning.

    “I want the Western Slope, just like the rest of Colorado, to really be at the forefront of helping us make Colorado the renewable energy capitol of our world and of our nation,” Salazar said to a standing-room-only crowd of people at the Mesa County Courthouse.

    Salazar traveled through western Colorado Tuesday on his Presidents Week holiday. He was here to distribute his regional plan for Colorado, to connect with constituents, to gather input on pertinent issues, to pin a combat medal on a World War II veteran and to visit a cheese factory in Olathe.

    In Grand Junction, he attracted high school students, educators, environmentalists, peace activists, homeless activists, politicians and more.

    A Democrat and member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Salazar spoke mostly about energy — renewable energy and oil shale — and federal mineral impact taxes.

    Two to three years ago, Colorado generated “almost zero” electricity from the wind, he said.

    But that trend is turning around.

    “By the end of this year, we’ll be generating almost 1,000 megawatts, the equivalent of three coal-fired power plants,” from wind farms on Colorado’s eastern plains, Salazar said. More wind farms will spring up, he said, as announcements will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

    Xcel Energy’s 70-acre solar farm, in Salazar’s native San Luis Valley, is the world’s largest solar electrical generating farm in the United States, he said.

    “It’s just the very beginning of what they can do,” to generate “clean and efficient” energy, Salazar said.

    “I want the Western Slope to be part of this renewable energy revolution we’re seeing here in America.”

    Salazar also addressed oil shale, and he updated the crowd on three pieces of legislation related to mineral leases and taxes from those leases.

    Millions of dollars now sitting in the trust fund established by the federal government to address clean-up of the Anvil Points Research Site will be used to clean the site. The balance should be distributed to areas affected by oil shale and oil and gas development, Salazar said.

    Department of Interior Director Dirk Kempthorne remains adamant the remaining money should revert to the U.S. treasury, but “we have a slightly different point of view,” Salazar said of himself and his Republican colleague, U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard.

    “Because it was a trust fund set up specifically for Anvil Points, it should go to deal with the road impacts and the oil and gas development impacts in Rio Blanco and Garfield counties,” Salazar said. “There is a huge amount of impact in those areas.”

    Salazar’s other points included:

    • Responding to a question by Grand Junction High School student Jasmine Flores, Salazar called spending for higher education “shameful” in Colorado, with the state listed as 48th of 50 in education funding.

    • Mineral lease funds should be split 50-50 between the federal government and states to distribute to areas impacted by mineral development, Salazar said. A change was made last year that gave the federal government 51 percent and states 49 percent, which makes a difference of “several millions of dollars,” he said.

    • Salazar also advocated for phased leasing of drilling natural gas on the Roan Plateau. He supports Gov. Bill Ritter’s plan to protect an additional 20,000 acres of land atop the Roan.

    • The development of oil shale should coincide with technology, so the environment doesn’t suffer when the resource is taken from the ground, Salazar said. Eighty percent of the world’s oil shale is found in his district in Rio Blanco and Garfield counties, he said.

    The public also gave opinions and questions:

    • Rio Blanco County Commissioner Ken Parsons thanked Salazar for working to bring back money from Anvil Points money to pay for impacts to Garfield and Rio Blanco counties, where the impacts take place.

    • Grand Junction High School graduate from the class of 1962 Janet Johnson asked Salazar for the federal government to fund studies on long-term exposure to uranium. Johnson said the interim transfer site in Grand Junction for uranium mill tailings found around the city should be covered while the tailings are waiting to be transferred to the permanent holding site south of town. Salazar said money from federal mineral impact funds “may be able to fund that.”

    • Club 20 Executive Director Reeves Brown addressed the 2 percent difference between 49 and 51 percent of federal mineral lease funds. That amounts to $6 million a year, he said. Brown advocated the states being in charge of the money and distributing it to the federal government.

    Reach Marija B. Vader at mvader@gjfreepress.com.