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Update: Fireclay Tiles and TODL.com have both shared our album.  Thanks y’all! Glad you like what you saw!

Nestled among 1.5 acres of Aspens, Telluride's coolest house!

This home features passive design– meaning from top to bottom, it’s orientation, windows, insulation, and materials are chosen to minimize energy usage. It also has solar panels. The only thing it seems to be missing, as far as I can tell, is InteriLife products on the inside.

She finished in two hours, five minutes (unofficial time.) The race finished at New Belgium Brewing, and the event was a minimum waste event with recycling & composting everywhere. woo-hoo!

Congrats, Sarah!

Cathy Proctor has been a journalist for over a decade. After she graduated from Northwestern’s Medill graduate School of Journalism, this Colorado College undergraduate came home to Colorado. She currently writes for the Denver Business Journal covering, as she puts it, the “old economy:” energy, transportation, construction, agriculture, public works and water.

She came to University of Denver on Monday to speak to law students about Colorado’s energy economy and address legal issue in the energy economy. And she did so excellently. However, her lecture also covered the story of Colorado’s energy economy over the last decade.

Colorado is a major producer of energy in the United States. When energy production is measured in terms of BTUs (a scientific heating unit measuring energy required to raise water temperature,) Colorado is tenth in the U.S. Colorado does not dominate any one type of energy source, but has respectable rank in all: number six in solar capacity, number ten in wind capacity (installed and potential combined), number five in natural gas, number ten in coal, number ten in oil. If industry can increase shale oil production, Colorado can supply four times the amount of oil energy in Saudi Arabia. Based on current American consumption levels, that is sufficient for another 146 years.

Shale oil and oil shale are two distinct natural resources. Proctor explained that, essentially, shale oil is oil shale after another couple hundred million years of Mother Nature’s magic.  Oil shale requires heat and some pressure to convert it into usable oil. Shale oil is the “left overs” within sediment and rocks that can be extracted out into usable fuel. Additionally, extracting shale oil is a growing controversy because it uses hydraulic fracture (commonly called “fracking.”) Colorado is on the forefront of this issue because the technique is currently being used on the Western slope. Fracking has been used in the United States since 1947, although only recently has it become widely used. Colorado, Wyoming and Texas have long histories with fracking– ultimately, its use in the northeastern states, like Pennsylvania, sparked the growing public resistance to its use. Proctor, having covered oil and natural gas for 10 plus years, thinks the typical northeasterner was more suspicious of the process because the oil and gas industry has not historically operated in the region. Coloradans, Texans, and Wyomingans may have been more comfortable with an industry so historical tied to their state’s economies, cultures, and histories.

As it turns out, there may be cause for concern regarding fracking. Imagine a bunch of Oreo cookies stacked on one another. One of the Oreos towards the bottom has oil or natural gas in the chocolate wafer. The rig drills down into the cream filling, and then blows up the cookie pieces. The oil and natural gas in the cookies will be ready for pumping out as it comes into the cream filling where the pipes are. The mixtures that allow the oil and natural gas to be pumped out consist of a lot of sand and a lot of water and a smaller amount of chemicals.

The first concern for environmentalists and surrounding communities is the chemical solution used in the process.  The industry holds the composition of these chemicals as a closely guarded secret because they are competitive blends– kind of like cola recipes, said Proctor. Colorado has enacted laws that make a company turn over their proprietary blends in the event of an unfortunate incident. So far, Proctor said, state officials have received everything they have requested after contaminations or accidents. Colorado’s regualtory structure, at least in this regard, is working.

Another concern for surrounding communities is analogous to the concern for military commanders: the fog of war. The “fog of underground” is cause for concern because it is almost impossible to tell the impact of fracking so far underground. Indeed, there have been multiple documented earthquakes in areas where it would normally be considered unusual to have an earthquake.

Usually, the legislators of Colorado have turned to increasing oversight and regulations. But as recent history has shown, it may be an imperfect solution to the concerns of Coloradans. From 2000-2007, the Piceance Basin (in northwestern Colorado) experienced one of the nation’s biggest natural gas booms. After mounting pressure from environmental groups and citizens, Governor Ritter signed what come to be called ‘the new oil and gas rules.’  The regulations were meant to increase protections for wildlife, the environment, and public health. Unfortunately, they also came with increased compliance costs for the oil and gas industry.

Whether the regulations worked or not, and whether they “killed business” or not, is a mystery still, almost five years later. The regulations coincided with the beginning of the current recession. The number of drilling rigs dropped from 214 in 2007 to 38 by the summer of 2009. Each rig created approximately twenty direct jobs. Whether it was too costly and too difficult regulations, or the increased expenses during the middle of a credit crunch and natural gas price drop, or a combination of all these factors, the economic impacts have made some Coloradans hesitant to implement new regulations.

And as renewable energy companies are learning, regulations can affect them significantly too. “All the easy places to put wind farms are gone,” joked Proctor. As wind farms and solar plants look to expand and establish new production of energy, the renewable energy community is discovering it is no easy process–they too must navigate the burdens, regulations, and restrictions. Ever since 2004′s Amendment 37, when Colorado voters approved renewable energy mandates, renewable energy expenditures have totaled in the billions. Some of that money has been invested in actual capacity, and some has gone towards purchasing credits for renewables in other states.

As projects move forward, environmental concerns remain. Endangered species protections, wildlife habitat interruptions, federal public land use regulations and permitting requirements, and nuisance and public health concerns have all hampered renewable energy projects.

Despite the challenges and demands the public places on energy companies, Colorado is home to dozens of the oil and natural gas industry’s major companies, like Chevron, Encana, Williams, Shell, Marathon, Noble, and Andarako. And increasingly, renewable energy companies have been moving into Colorado, like the Danish firm Vestas, the German SMA, and GE, which recently acquired PrimeStar Solar in Arvada. Energy production is sure to be a major part of Colorado’s economy for decades more.

The Eco-Festival benefits the Rockledge Ranch Historical Site in Garden of the Gods Park. According to Walker, each year the event raises over $2,000 for the museum. “It’s a really valuable museum. It’s educational. It’s a living history site showing how Pikes Peak residents lived in different time periods. That we can get together and focus on how we can live our lives smarter and better today, while benefiting an historic site dedicated to teaching us about how people used to live is a great thing.”

Event participants have included local business big-names like The Gazette, Best-Way Disposal and City Parks and Recreation and smaller, newer companies like local start-ups Baby Cotton Bottoms and InteriLife. Walking around the Rockledge Ranch grounds, a visitor will be treated to samples, information, displays, and interactive games at sponsor and exhibitor tents. Visitors can also enjoy live music, pizza, popcorn, and other refreshments from local food vendors and restaurants. Bristol Brewing Company sponsors the beer garden. While adults enjoy music and brew, the kids enjoy activities ranging from kid yoga to competitive games like relay races out on the green grass. Last year’s event saw an estimated 850 people and one of the most pleasant days of the year, with clear skies and sunny weather.

This year’s Pikes Peak Eco-Festival will be August 27, 2011.  more information @ http://www.pikespeakecofestival.com/

I’ll be covering more topics, more people, and a broader array of things green.  Don’t expect this all at once, but today marks the start of the new direction on our blog.

Comments and suggestions are welcomed.

-jimmy