The Green Machine is out with their legislative scorecard and we have decided to apply our own analysis to their crackpot scoring. Standing against some of the ridiculous legislation pushed by the enviros makes you a conservative champion in our book. We love the environment too. We hike, ski, hunt and pretty much have the same enjoyment of the beautiful Colorado outdoors as anyone else, but the Green Machine's legislative priorities place enviro nonsense ahead of jobs and common sense.

So, to take their asinine analytics and bring economic reality into the equation, we decided to flip the scorecard on its head and honor those that stand with energy consumers and not "green energy" industry lackies. A tip of the hat to Senators Lambert, Lundberg, Renfroe, Cadman, and Grantham. Three affordable bill cheers also go out to Representatives Beezley, Conti, Coram, and Ramirez. Thanks for helping to ensure we can afford to pay our bill at the end of the month!

How asinine is the Colorado Conservation Voter legislative scorecard? Let's look at a couple of the bills they deemed important enough to score the Legislature on:

The so-called Hullinghorst-Ferrandino amendment would have banned any member of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) from "owning stock, securities or other financial interests related to companies regulated by the Commission." So the people with the actual technical expertise in the industry, who might happen to own stock in companies they work for, would be banned from serving on the Commission. What about Commission members who have a financial interest in solar or wind companies that are trying to compete with oil and gas companies? They can stay. No conflict of interest there.

Or how about a big helping of greenie hypocrisy? Another bill would have banned the Clean Energy Fund from supporting nuclear power. How can the enviro folks claim to be against greenhouse gases but against nuclear power, which emits no greenhouse gases? As energy expert Robert Bryce said when spanking Bill Ritter's ass in a debate on renewable energy, "if you're anti-fossil fuel and anti-nuclear, you are pro-blackout." 

Whereas Colorado Conservation was upset with conservative lawmakers for stating that the promotion of renewable energy "frequently conflicts with the interests of the public as consumers and ratepayers," we think that's a good thing. And empirically true. Since not everyone has the financial backing of heiress Pat Stryker, like Colorado Conservation, they have to worry about actually affording their electricity bill. We're pretty sure voters appreciate lawmakers worrying about their utility bills. 

Three affordable bill cheers for the conservative champions and three Bronx cheers for the Green Machine!