Noticias

• Local Governments Skeptical of E-Bike Share Program
• Colorado Legislature Talks Immigration and Guns

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Local Governments Skeptical of E-Bike Share Program

Local governments are exploring the possibility of a regional e-bike share program.

At recent meetings, the towns of Mountain Village and Telluride, along with San Miguel County, received an update on a technical readiness plan for an e-bike program across the east end of San Miguel County.

“We’re not bringing you this for implementation right now,” said Lauren Kirn, sustainability and grant projects manager for the town of Mountain Village.

“This project is really developing a technical readiness plan so that if Council were to decide to implement this in the future, we’d have all the components needed in order to do that,” Kirn said.

Mountain Village received a grant to conduct the study, and town staff noted the effort aligns with regional goals for climate mitigation and regional connectivity.

“As part of the region’s climate transportation goals, we’re trying to make it easier for people to get out of their personal cars for certain trips, and make it easier to use the gondola and public bus for more kinds of trips with e-biking as a first/last mile mode,” said Richard Davis of Steer Group, a mobility consulting firm working with Mountain Village on the plan. “The theory behind this technical readiness study is to see e-bikes as an extension of the transit system.”

Steer Group collected data from a community survey on e-biking, receiving responses from nearly 100 community members.

“When asked what the biggest barriers to cycling, infrastructure is the biggest barrier,” Davis said. “That’s consistent with all the public comment we’ve received. Nearly half the respondents said this is their biggest barrier to cycling.”

Other barriers identified in the survey included weather, distance, elevation and traffic.

If an e-bike share program were implemented, the bikes would likely be docked at designated locations, meaning they could not be left on roads or sidewalks at the end of a trip.

The survey identified 13 potential locations for e-bike stations: seven in Telluride, including Carhenge, the gondola, Clarks, Shandoka and the courthouse; four in Mountain Village at Town Hall, the Blue Mesa bus stop, VCA and the Meadows; one location in Lawson; and one at Bridal Veil.

During discussion, council members expressed mixed feelings about the proposal.

Telluride Town Council member Dan Enright said he supports the idea as a way to reduce traffic.

“I have interest in this because I view this as a way to reduce traffic impacts in our town, as well as being the biggest supporter of reducing greenhouse gasses to support our climate action goals,” Enright said.

Mountain Village Mayor Scott Pearson said the program could create a new level of convenience for residents.

“You’re a Meadows resident and you want to get up gondola and this is an alternative to waiting for the bus, or I guess it’s an alternative to the Chondola,” Pearson said. “It’s the summertime when people are most likely to ride and that is when the Chondola isn’t running.”

Telluride Town Council member Ashley Von Spreaken raised concerns about the lack of infrastructure for a regional bike commute.

“Until we have that road infrastructure where you can safely take an e-bike from Telluride to Mountain Village, I’m concerned this might not be the best transit option for us right now,” Von Spreaken said. “I would like us to look at building those things, to create that interconnectivity, so that biking would be a possibility as a commute between Telluride and Mountain Village. I feel like we’re doing this before we’re ready to.”

Mountain Village Town Council member Tucker Magid and Telluride Town Council member Elena Levin also questioned the reliability of the program for riders.

“If you’re in the Meadows and you want to go to the market, what are the chances your bike is still there when you leave to go back,” Magid said. “It’s a consistency issue. People aren’t going to use it if they can’t rely on it.”

“If we actually want to find commuter transit, I just don’t know that this system is reliable enough for people who are commuting day to day to know that the bike will be there in the morning when they have to get to work, and that bike is going to be there when they need to get home,” Levin said.

The purpose of the discussions was not to provide direction on implementation, but to gather feedback and questions. Consultants aim to complete the technical readiness plan by April and will provide a further update.

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Colorado Legislature Talks Immigration and Guns

Lawmakers in Denver are jumping into contentious topics, with immigration and gun regulation on the docket. In this installment of Capitol Conversation, statehouse reporter Lucas Brady Woods shares the latest.

Julia Caulfield (JC): Lucas, thanks so much for taking a couple minutes to chat with me today.

Lucas Brady Woods (LBW): Of course, happy to be here.

JC: I think it is fair to say that the Colorado legislature is immediately diving into some really big topics that folks across the country are interested in when it comes to immigration and guns. So let’s start with the immigration. I know that lawmakers introduced kind of a slate of bills. What is happening there?

LBW: Yeah, immigration is turning out to be a pretty central theme of the beginning of this session. You know, anything can happen as it goes on. But right now there are three pretty significant immigration related bills that are floating around. A group of Democratic lawmakers officially announced them today and two of them have not been officially introduced one has.

They do a whole slew of things with the idea of further limiting federal immigration enforcement operations here in Colorado and local law enforcement cooperation with those immigration authorities. So they do a whole slew of things ranging from, prohibiting local law enforcement from wearing masks, including when they’re working with immigration authorities, and further limits on where and when immigration authorities can detain people.

It also includes some regulations around detention centers. If this bill passed, detention centers would have to pay for regular public health and environmental inspections from the state.

So, there’s a whole slew of things in in these bills um that that would affect operations. The sponsors really are looking to you know add guardrails and protections for immigrants. That’s what they say this is coming from. And it’s worth noting, too, that they’re doing what they can from their perspective because immigration enforcement is a federal purview, not state purview. So they can’t do much to directly regulate immigration authorities like ICE. But what they can do is put guardrails on the state level and regulate local law enforcement cooperation with them.

JC: With some of the maybe challenges that state officials have, we see a lot of bills that are passed in the legislature, they don’t go into effect until the next year or months later. Have you heard anything about that in terms of what lawmakers want or are trying to do that maybe their constituents are saying we need action now, not in a couple months, even if, you know, they’re doing the best they can.

LBW: You know, the sponsors say they’re really trying to work as fast as possible with these bills while still coming up with really solid, effective, comprehensive legislation. There are some bills that actually take effect immediately when they’re signed. It’s called the safety clause, and they can go into effect immediately when they’re signed. So I think part of the reason they’re bringing these bills early in the session is exactly what you’re saying, supporters really want action quickly. They’re also responding to a lot of the violence in Minnesota and some of the killings there at the hands of ICE.

JC: Up next, there are some gun bills that are going through as well or have been introduced. What are these talking about?

LBW: There’s two main ones in the works now, and I think one that maybe will come later. One of these would expand the state’s red flag laws or extreme risk protection orders. They allow, you know, a person, an individual to, you know, petition a judge to remove someone’s guns if they pose a threat to themselves or others. This bill would just expand who can file those petitions. That would include if this passes institutions rather than individuals, so like hospitals, schools, and then it would also include co-responders, which are behavioral health professionals who are often paired with other first responders. So they would be able to file a petition for a red flag order directly as opposed to going through law enforcement or someone else that’s allowed to file these petitions.

Another key piece here is that it would allow people to file a petition for someone’s guns to be removed if a child who is around those guns poses a threat to themselves or others too.

Then the other gun bill that’s that’s pretty prominent right now would put new regulations on the sale and transfer of gun barrels. That’s in an attempt to further curb the use of ghost guns, which are firearms that be assembled at home using a kit or a 3D printer. I’ve heard that there’s another bill coming later this session that will also regulate ghost gun parts.

JC: These are some pretty big topics that lawmakers are doing some big swings at the beginning of the General Assembly. Do you think that this speaks to maybe how lawmakers are going about this session? Or does it feel more like they’re getting these big things out of the way first, and then it’s going to maybe be smaller, maybe less high profile bills as we continue to go through?

LBW: Now, that is the ultimate question, isn’t it? I think they’re bringing some of these bills early because of urgency from the public or from their constituents or the supporters of these policies to get them done quickly. But I do think that we’re going to see plenty of big policies coming through throughout the session. It is still really early, and this red flag law expansion, for example, is significant, but it’s fairly narrow. It’s expanding an existing law. It’s not creating a new law. So I think they wanted to get this one out of the way and others and, move on to other major policies that still have to be debated and worked through. There’s housing stuff coming. There’s a lot of budget stuff coming later in the session. So these are all really big ticket items.

JC: Well, Lucas, we will keep in touch about all of the things that happen, big or small. And I really appreciate you taking a couple minutes to chat with me today.

LBW: Thanks so much, as always.

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Telluride Science Explores Carbon Capture to Fight Climate Change

Could humans fight climate change by capturing carbon before it reaches the atmosphere — or by pulling it directly out of the air? That question is at the heart of a Telluride Science event taking place this week.

The event will feature a panel of scientists leading a discussion on carbon capture and its potential role in addressing climate change.

The conversation will explore what carbon capture is and how it works, how it fits alongside renewable energy and other climate solutions, and the differences between capturing carbon from industrial sources and removing it directly from the air. Panelists will also address the technology’s promises, limitations and common misconceptions.

The “Carbon Capture: Can Technology Help Slow Climate Change?” event will be held Wednesday, Feb. 4, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Telluride Science and Innovation Center. The event is free and open to the community.

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Bardic Trails Poetry Night Features Lesley Wheeler

When color comes back to the world,
leaving gets near. By the roadside, auburn
and cream cows chew spangled green.
Creeks steam. A lone bull’s horns gore
my heart. Judas trees in flower blur.
Scintillant mist unveils an omen
of mountains. Rows of trees divide
each pasture, branches spread wide,
because they never needed to compete
for light. Please, fog, roll back over
my life. Shrink, leaves, to your old
sites inside secret wood. May days be short
and expeditions brief. No spring. No grief.

• Unsonnet by Lesley Wheeler

Lesley Wheeler will be the featured poet at this month’s Talking Gourds Bardic Trails Stories & Poems event.

Wheeler will share selections from her work, followed by time for questions. Attendees are also encouraged to bring a poem to share, whether their own or one written by another poet. For those seeking inspiration, this month’s theme is “mushrooms.”

The evening of poetry and storytelling will take place Tuesday, Feb. 3, at 7 p.m. The event will be held via Zoom. Visit tellurideinstitute.org for the link.

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Colorado Cities Protest ICE

Protests took place in communities across the country Saturday, calling attention to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.

The demonstrations followed a nationwide general strike held Friday that included student walkouts and business closures.

Several protests were held across Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West. In Boulder, approximately 3,000 people gathered downtown Saturday for the ICE OUT demonstration, the largest such protest in the city since last year’s No Kings rally.

Among those attending was Milo Needle, who spent the afternoon handing out free snacks and water to demonstrators.

“ It helps people protest harder, longer, and louder and helps spread community spirit. So I funded the first one myself, my own money, and then I received donations at the first protest I went to, to do it at the next and so on and so forth. This is my fifth protest having free snacks and water. So far, I’ve handed out around 400 waters. Around 300 snacks I’d say,” Needle said.

Other protests Saturday took place in Denver, Colorado Springs and Grand Junction.

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Media coverage of human-caused climate change declined in 2025, according to new research from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Media and Climate Change Observatory.

Researchers say news coverage plays a key role in helping the public and policymakers understand the impacts of climate change. Rocky Mountain Community Radio’s Caroline Llanes reports that many U.S. climate stories over the past year focused on the Trump administration’s rollback of climate research, funding and programs.

Max Boykoff, the project’s lead researcher, said dismantling those systems isolates the United States from the rest of the world at a time when global cooperation is needed.

Despite the administration’s rejection of climate change as a political talking point, Boykoff said the issue continues to influence policy discussions, often through lived experience.

“While energy affordability, while considerations around food prices and on and on, there’s many inroads into what can be then seen as and discussed as climate policy decision making,” Boykoff said.

He said those issues, along with drought and wildfire, are likely to play a role in the 2026 midterm elections, even if candidates do not explicitly use the words “climate change” when discussing them.