Six years ago Colorado voters shook the foundations of Prohibition with passage of Amendment 64. As such, we became the first unit of government in the world to end the reign of ‘Reefer Madness‘.
What began with the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, then enshrined in the Controlled Substance Act by Richard Nixon in 1970, left not only a shameful legacy of social injustices, it enveloped the agricultural sector, preventing American farmers from participating in a robust global market for hemp-derived products.
While the passage of A64 is most commonly known for its legalization of adult-use cannabis, the amendment also specifically addressed industrial hemp production. With that, Colorado farmers became the first in the nation to have the legal right to bring this crop of our Founding Fathers back to our farms.
The beauty of our Democratic Republic is that states are the laboratories for change. In our case what started as an ember became a virtual prairie fire. Amendment 64 isn’t a ‘Great Social Experiment‘, it’s leadership.
The numbers speak for themselves: with Colorado as the first state to legalize hemp production, our nation has gone from one legal state to forty over the past five years. Thanks to the vision of Congressman Jared Polis, the 2014 Farm Bill includes the provision to allow farmers to legally cultivate industrial hemp in states where such cultivation has been legalized and provides all land-grant universities and research institutions the right to conduct research without fear of federal interference. (A special shout-out to Senator Michael Bennet is also in order in his role as conferee on the 2014 Farm Bill and his critical leadership in keeping the 7606 amendment language intact).
Today, Colorado is the shining star amongst the 40 legal states; last year we outpaced second-place Kentucky by almost a factor of three. This success didn’t happen in a vacuum: it is a direct result of significant education efforts from the community, a very engaged and supportive legislature, a progressive state department of agriculture and a strong partnership with Colorado State University. As a result of this expansive leadership, Colorado (and by default, American) farmers can now participate in an existing, nearly $1 billion domestic market that has historically been served by imports.
We’ve only just begun to understand and create the myriad of products that can come from this ancient plant – and how it will bring about new prosperity in a 21st-century economy. Amendment X is a critical next step in opening these new markets, but our legislators hands are tied in how we go about demonstrating many of these new markets.
Under current federal law the amount of THC allowed in the hemp plant is 0.3%. There is no scientific basis for that number; it was born of political decisions decades ago. The problem for Colorado farmers is that the definition of hemp, mirroring the current federal standard, is set in our state constitution. Farmers, growing hemp in good faith, may for reasons out of their control (many times simply environmental) grow a crop that may exceed the 0.3% limit. In those situations the crop must be destroyed – a ludicrous, wasteful and unnecessary outcome rooted in decades-old, scientifically-unsupportable standards. By removing the definition of industrial hemp from our constitutional language and putting it in the hands of our legislature we can create a new and empowering ecosystem for our farmers, land-grant universities and community colleges to remain leaders in creating new products for the global marketplace. With that, more jobs, more young people returning to our rural landscape and more opportunities for our farmers to shift production from subsidized commodity crops.
Vote Yes on X – and keep Colorado on the forefront of this new and exciting industry.
Just over 40 years ago the US economy experienced a first: an oil embargo by (then)
Giving credit where credit is due, KeystoneXL is someone's vision; when political will combined with that vision the opportunity moved from 'paper to pipeline'. This grand scheme dictates the destruction of the boreal forest, extracting hydrocarbons formed millions of years ago, forced in a pipeline and moved thousands of miles to Gulf refineries where the final product will be shipped to foreign lands. It promises thousands of temporary construction jobs and a handful of permanent jobs; it holds the possibility of polluting the nation's largest underground fresh water supply, the Ogallala, and most economists predict the pipeline will increase the cost of gasoline in the Rocky Mountain region 10 to 20 cents per gallon.
But lets for a moment revision the foundation of the Canadian project: the 1,379 miles of pipe laid horizontal and pointing towards Texas. Let's turn it 90 degrees vertical and apply an American idea to the proposal. Slicing the pipeline into 212 foot segments (the average height of a wind turbine tower, and turning the pipe upwards gives us 34,337 opportunities for wind development across our midwestern landscape. Using a Colorado-made Vestas product, those sticks transform themselves into 72 gigawatts of wind energy potential, nearly enough generation capacity to displace the 329 coal plants in the United States that face retirement from age or inability to meet new air standards. Instead of creating a carbon bomb, we've created the infrastructure to displace hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide annually.
As a part-time creature of Washington, DC mired in rural policy issues, I have little faith that grand visions are possible in today's poisoned political well. My example of slicing the pipeline into wind towers was merely illustrtive but to prove a point on how my personal perspective judges the Keystone plan quite differently from my neighbors. The structural challenges in todays money-soaked, two-party system are daunting. January will bring us a new majority in Congress that conventional wisdom instructs us will be antagonistic towards alternative forms of energy. For now I'll hold that criticism until it is earned: Teddy Roosevelt gave us the National Park System; Richard Nixon the EPA, George H.W. Bush gave us the nation's first cap-and-trade program (acid rain) and George W. Bush gave us our nation's Renewable Fuel Standard after putting in place, as Texas Governor, one of the most aggressive wind energy portfolios in the nation. Unconventional wisdom might better instruct us that new opportunities are just around the corner.
My grandfather, a depression-era farmer, knew the value of tending to his seedlings. For him the seed needed a good beginning: fertile soil, nutrients, good soil tilth and cooperation from from Mother Nature. For the inputs he could control, he was indeed a stubborn steward. He also had two staunch beliefs: there was no other tractor than a John Deere, and his planter of choice was his red, International Harvester wheat drill. With only an eighth-grade education as his foundation he understood, with great clarity, the value of making prudent investments in labor and inputs. His reward would be a full grainary.
Ten years ago we went to the ballot box and passed the first-ever citizens-initiated renewable portfolio standard in the nation, Amendment 37. Under the leadership of its bi-partisan co-chairs Mark Udall and Lola Spradley, the initiative put a solid foundation under what would emerge as Colorado's 
As an early supporter of the national agricultural alliance,
It takes a "Village". Thanks to
It's impossible to miss the irony: Lamar, the host community of Colorado's first commercial wind farm. A wind turbine blade exhibited proudly on Main Street, a testament to the coming 'New Energy Economy'. 
Today, Lamar faces a stormy and uncertain financial future. A region drowning in Class 5 wind resources. Rich soils and river water. A community of souls who have endured, and to date prospered from nearly every Biblical plague one could imagine. 
We've come a long way in the past decade since the passage of Amendment 37. We've built a foundation – projects and policy – upon the knowledge that we have an infinite amount of sunshine, wind and biomass. We understand we don't have to settle for sacrificing our state's environment to have a robust economy. 
In the past year my political allegiances have been strained; my political beliefs have not. Here at home I remain befuddled by our inability to tackle the challenges with the rampant expansion of the oil and gas industry, severance tax rates and the challenges to continue our leadership on the New Energy Economy. For those, we have a remedy: ballot initiatives. At the federal level I understand the challenges in Congress 
That's the first word that came to mine as I read my email from the 
We accomplished all of this through the toughest of times; we were successful because we created a vision for the community. It's not that we didn't have our detractors, we did. But their arguments against 'change' were no match for a solid road map that redefined our community. In short, we knew we had to embrace change – or wither on the vine.
Earlier this month the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) held its annual conference in Nashville. 
There is a coming war on the western economy. 
As we witness the growing chasm between the abundance for some and scarcity for others – 
Talk's not cheap. Not if House Republicans led by 
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Lincoln thought BIG.
Tuesday the 
On the same day, 