Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: Regulatory Reform

Douglas County Cuts Red Tape to Speed Business Growth
CBS Colorado, Approved

Douglas County Cuts Red Tape to Speed Business Growth

By Olivia Young | CBS Colorado Douglas County leaders have launched an initiative to reduce red tape and incentivize business development in the county. "It's all we ever wanted to do," Becky Stroh told CBS Colorado. "Finally, we got to the point in our lives where we're like, 'All right, we're ready to open up our own place.'" In 2012, Stroh and her husband opened their dream restaurant in Castle Rock, the Hideaway Bar & Grill. "Permits just take a while," Stroh said. "So getting approvals take a long time." Stroh says the permitting process for the initial opening, and subsequent remodels, was lengthy. "The LED sign outside, that I remember that permit took six weeks," Stroh said. "It would just be nice to know when are we going to get the pe...
What’s Likely to Change at Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

What’s Likely to Change at Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Likely changes to the Public Utilities Commission As I write this, the ultimate fate of the Public Utilities Commission sunset bill, HB26-1326 (the first link below), is unknown. I think that its becoming law is solid enough that we can wrap up what changes to this important unelected body we will see. Toward that end, I present you a couple of references which make a decent attempt at hitting endpoints on the ideological spectrum. Link 2 is a wrap up report by the Independence Institute’s energy policy writer Sarah Montalbano. Link 3 is to a contemporaneous article by the Colorado Sun’s Mark Jaffe. I’ll leave it to you to read through either or, what’s better, both. There are some things that stuck out t...
Gaines: Bureaucrats are making the rules—and you’re paying for it
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Gaines: Bureaucrats are making the rules—and you’re paying for it

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Rulemaking in Colorado.** Rulemaking is the process by which our legislature delegates the task of regulating specific actions and behaviors. In a rough sense it works like this. Say the legislature wants to make a law so that building owners don't scrimp on elevator expenses to the detriment of public safety. The legislature, rather than directly telling landlords what to do, will task an executive agency with a general set of constraints, telling the agency to come up with rules and regulations that "protect the public safety" or other such phrases. The executive agency then sets the actual policy: what does safety look like for elevators, how is it checked? If this strikes you as not being too far from having u...
Hancock: President Trump’s nuclear plan puts power—and America—back on the grid
Approved, Commentary, National, Rocky Mountain Voice, Substack, Top Stories

Hancock: President Trump’s nuclear plan puts power—and America—back on the grid

By Michael A. Hancock | Commentary, Substack Trump’s Plan to Fix the Grid, Cut the Red Tape, & Fuel the Future Politics doesn’t power cities—electricity does. And Trump just fired up the most significant energy move we’ve seen in decades. It isn’t about windmills or wishful thinking. It’s about fission. Steel. Jobs. It’s about restoring America’s backbone, one kilowatt at a time. Welcome to America’s new atomic age. Trump’s nuclear strategy is not a relic of the Cold War but a blueprint for national revival. At its core is a simple truth: electricity has become intelligence. The race to dominate artificial intelligence—the next frontier of economic and military superiority—will not be won with slogans or solar panels. It will be won with gigawatts. And nuclear energy, ...