I don’t know why we have holidays on Mondays, it would be better to start holiday weekends on Friday, but not likely to change.  Generally, people go home early on Fridays.  I can remember when Dick Lamm was governor and he pulled a Friday governmental check on his state employees and found that a majority of state workers were taking off on Friday.  It made the headlines several decades ago.  I was a good friend of Gov. Lamm.  He would come to Craig when I was mayor.  He awarded the city over $1 million in state aid from his local affairs department to construct a new high school.  He was very concerned about the impact of the power plants on the community.  Now, 40 years later, the state is concerned about shutting down the four power plants.  These plants provide a tremendous amount of electricity on the grid system fueled from the strip coal mining operations creating hundreds of jobs and millions in tax revenues.

I have grave concerns about wind and solar supplying the growing demand for electricity.  With the rise of electric vehicles, charging stations will have to be fueled by electricity.  When the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow, there may be some cold winters and hot summer days when we don’t have enough electricity to meet the demands.

Look at the electricity that is used by casino operations. Vast amounts of electricity powering the video games, air conditioning,  hotel room demands, street  signals, RTD trains, DEN Airport, hospitals, all of these industries are reliant upon reliable  fossil fuels.

I’m told that charging an electric vehicle is equivalent to 20 refrigerators in electrical usage.  I think we’re a long  way from converting to green energy.  We have the cart before the horse and those Craig power plants are starting to shut down in the very near future. There is now some stirring around the possibility of nuclear upgrades to keep these power sources working on the grid system.

I feel that nuclear is the only answer and all of these windmills will be junk, along with the solar panels both made in China.  The challenge with nuclear is to dispose of the radioactive waste.  

Decades ago, I was invited to tour a nuclear bomb site North of Las Vegas where scientists  had exploded nuclear bombs.  There were gigantic holes in the desert with cattle roaming on the bomb site areas with plastic windows  inserted into their sides showing their stomachs and organs to check on radiation levels.   

Looking into the future, a nuclear cartridge the size of a flashlight battery could power a vehicle for a year.  Similar devices could power homes.  Nuclear plants could produce abundant electricity for future generations, reducing the demands on fossil fuels and green energy. 

There is considerable research ongoing with hydrogen fuel for future sources of energy.  Toyota has done considerable research in California on development of hydrogen powered vehicles.

If we can send a  another space rocket to the moon, our scientists can figure out how to harness new sources of energy.

I can remember a slogan going back to Jimmy Carter’s presidency that said, “Let the SOBs freeze in the dark.”  

We had fuel shortages in the 1970s and had to drive at 55 mpg  on highways.  Anything that we can do to extend the supply and life of fossil fuels will be wise because someday we will exhaust this source of energy.

I’m betting on American ingenuity and free enterprise to save future generations from what could be a huge energy disaster.

The cows, by the ways seemed healthy in their nuclear pastures.

When I returned to Craig I didn’t glow in the dark from radiation.