Colorado Politics reported that the U.S. energy secretary, during a Colorado visit, said America needs to grow energy capacity and lower prices. If that is the actual message, good. That is not radical. That is not scary. That is what normal people call reality.
Families and businesses do not run on slogans. They run on reliable, affordable energy. Colorado knows this better than most, with energy workers, agriculture, growing communities, cold winters, and a political class that sometimes acts like electricity appears because someone held a press conference near a solar panel.
The Bullet Point Brief
- The message, as reported by Colorado Politics, was simple: America needs more energy capacity and lower prices. Somewhere, supply and demand just got rediscovered in public.
- That should not be controversial unless your energy policy was written by a grad student with a trust fund and a wind chart.
- Colorado is the right place for this conversation. We produce energy, use energy, grow food, build homes, and heat buildings when winter remembers it is winter.
- More capacity does not happen because a federal official says the word “capacity” into a microphone. It takes production, transmission, infrastructure, investment, and permits that do not require surviving a bureaucratic obstacle course designed by raccoons.
- If the secretary is serious, fine. Credit where due. But if this turns into another federal photo-op with better lighting than substance, taxpayers and ratepayers have seen that movie. The popcorn was overpriced too.
My Bottom Line
If the energy secretary is saying America needs more capacity and lower prices, that is a rare moment of sanity from Washington. We should encourage it before someone in the building realizes it makes sense and sends it to a committee to die.
But no politician gets a standing ovation for discovering that prices go down when supply goes up. That is not visionary leadership. That is a gas station sign with a tenth-grade economics lesson attached.
The real test is permitting. The real test is infrastructure. The real test is whether the federal government stops treating energy projects like hostage negotiations with paperwork. You cannot demand reliable power, shut down production, delay transmission, demonize investment, and then act shocked when prices climb and the grid gets cranky.
Colorado should welcome real energy growth. Not managed scarcity with a bumper sticker. Not costume-drama environmentalism where virtue is measured by how expensive you can make life for working families. Build capacity. Lower prices. Keep the lights on. That is the job.
Source: Colorado Politics
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