JACKSON—U.S. Rep Harriet Hageman on Tuesday touted GOP efforts to thwart campaigns reducing fossil fuel use, proposing that Boulder, Colorado, be stripped of its hydrocarbon infrastructure in a pilot program to test renewables.
Hageman made her comments at a Jackson town hall, where she dutifully appeared as promised when running for office. She touted GOP fights against the Biden administration, hailed her first successful bill — expanding victims’ rights — and railed against bureaucrats she’s fought for decades as a water and land-use attorney.
In deep support of Wyoming’s coal, oil and gas industries, she proposed a pilot project that would strip Boulder, Colorado, a progressive enclave, of its fossil fuel infrastructure — all to be replaced with windmills and solar panels on the city’s open space.
“The pilot project is, you take out all their gas stations,” she said to a crowd of about 70 people in the Teton County Library. “We take away all their internal combustion engines — cars. We take away all of their highways and streets, because that’s all oil-and-gas-produced.”
“We fill out open space with windmills and solar panels, and we’ll see if we can actually run a city of 100,000 people [with] no fossil fuels whatsoever.”
U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman
She drew applause and laughter.
“Marvelous!” one audience member exclaimed.
“They’ve been a no-growth city for decades,” Hageman said, “so they have a lot of open space around them.
“We fill out open space with windmills and solar panels, and we’ll see if we can actually run a city of 100,000 people [with] no fossil fuels whatsoever.”
“We’ll see if I can get that off the ground,” Hageman said.
Boulder blowback
Although Hageman earned chuckles and applause from her largely partisan group in Jackson, her suggestion rankled Boulder City Councilman Mark Wallach.
“One of the things that makes people so leery of politics and politicians is when people make ridiculous suggestions like that,” he said in a telephone interview with WyoFile.
“Nobody on the Boulder Council suggested we can do without all the fossil fuels at this point,” he said. “We make efforts to do better — to recognize that climate change is real and we do things we can do to combat it.”
“If she doesn’t understand the actual serious nature of the threat posed by climate change, I’m afraid she’s going to be living in a very warm state in the next decade.”
He pointed to the Marshall Fire, which ignited in the winter of 2021 and destroyed 1,000 Boulder homes, as serious evidence. Further, firefighters just finished combating four separate wildfires in the Boulder area.
“If somebody wants to make light, that’s their business,” he said “I deal in the real world, not in her fantasy world.”
Wallach refused to cut Hageman any slack for using hyperbole, exaggeration or attempted humor.
“She’s trying to score points at the expense of a community that’s doing what it can,” he said, calling Hageman’s proposal “bizarre and grotesque.” But he offered an olive branch.
“She’s invited to tour the site of the Marshall Fire anytime she chooses,” Wallach said.
Hageman may not need to travel to Colorado to see the effects of a wildfire.
“As you may know over the last week my family has suffered from some losses,” she told the Jackson audience. “We did have a pretty big fire on our ranch.”
“We didn’t lose any cattle,” she said. “We didn’t lose any horses. Nobody got hurt. They were able to keep most of the fire up in the mountains rather than coming down on the prairie, so they were able to control it,” Hageman said.
“There are so many people around the country who have gone through this exact same thing and are suffering as well,” she said. “You just realize what people go through and how difficult it can be.”
She touts GOP budget
Hageman touted five of 12 federal budget bills recently passed by the GOP controlled U.S. House, one of which calls for removing the grizzly bear from the Endangered Species Act list of threatened species in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Other provisions in the Interior Department’s appropriations bill would defund the BLM Rock Springs Resource Management Plan revision “so that they cannot go forward with denying access, management and use to 1.8 million acres, destroying our oil and gas industry, destroying our grazing industry down there.”
She hailed the U.S. Supreme Court’s Chevron decision that de-emphasizes the role bureaucrats play in interpreting federal laws, and applauded another high court decision regarding the “waters of the United States” and the government’s ability to keep them free of pollutants.
Hageman, who worked on the case before being elected to Congress, said the government claimed an irrigation ditch was a navigable waterway and that her client faced $65 million in fines before the case was resolved in his favor.
Her first bill to be signed into law — just last week, she said — extends victims’ rights regarding restitution. “There’s no restitution available for family members,” Hageman said.“So I worked with Sen. John Cornyn, and we put together what’s called the [Victims’] Voices Act, and what it does is it expands the number of people who are entitled to restitution from people who commit crimes.”
Hageman is out of touch with reality on climate the preserving our beautiful land for the public. She also blames Biden for all the long term problems that her team didn’t solve when they were in charge. Note her team blocked a bi partisan bill to solve some of the LONG term immigration issues. Her master said don’t support it. She followed her leader & din’t work for her country. Shame on her.
Anyone with the “let’s fail” attitude should read and listen to information about renewable energy sources. It’s far from the ultimate power source today & it’s still developing stages. Fossil fuels will be around for ever and advancing renewables as additional energy sources is the future. Wyoming’s booms & busts with oil, coal, & gas (oops…excuse me) have been happening since I can remember. Adding wind, solar, & hydro powered electric with second vehicles, bikes, scooters ( no boats please ) is adding to Wyoming’s future.
I understand Hageman must advance MAGA reasoning, she was endorsed by a Convicted Convict. I’m a registered Voter & please vote.
Are any of you living fossil fuel free now? Today? Why not? AFRAID OF LIVING THE DREAM?
This gets so old. All the liberal voices here just cannot hide their hatred. They’re calling for people to “grow up”. Just never mind that Harriet simply makes parody of those, who by their very nature, make one childish choice after another. We trogladytes, whose minds are forevermore pinched off by an unwavering dedication to the principles of conservatism, fail to make muster when our “weird”, lone representative causes us to smirk at our “oh so adult” lefty cohabitators. The lefties are firm believers in our right to free speech-just as long as they’re the ones doing the talking. In their opinion, Harriet Hageman needs to kindly shut up and sit down because the adults are in the room.
Personally, I find Harriet’s suggestion worth looking into. I believe that the Flat Irons should be a perfect place for a solar array. And above them, a 1000 acre windfarm. That way, we could all share the free energy, while at the same time, utilizing mother nature’s beautiful natural spaces. We could sell it to Blackrock eventually for them to manage, and our electricity would be almost free. That’s what has happened here in Wyoming. It’s just fabulous to be able to look out across our beautiful land and see progressivism in full display. Many thanks to the non-gmo types whose minds are so incredibly open, there is virtually no end to the great common-sense adult plans they have. I hope The People’s Republic of Boulder has an open mind, and doesn’t fall into the woeful “not in my backyard” childish way of thinking.
Coy Grimsley,
I would encourage everyone to actually stop and really think about ” Climate change as well as renewable energy”. Think back to what they teach us all in school about our planet. They told us all in school how our planet has had this “Climate change” as long as it has existed. Im not saying this is false. The Climate is changing. Along with the timing of our seasons. I hunt Deer and Elk the same months every year. The season are definitely shifting. I am simply saying. We can NOT STOP it from happening. Yes we may possibly slow it down but. We will never slow it down if we are the only dam country trying to clean things up. I really wounder how much time and money we have wasted focusing on one thing “RENEWABLES”. We are not ready to switch. The technology is not even close. Idk if you have laid eyes on these wind farms? and don’t get me started on how ridiculous the solar farms look. Both are ugly, leave a way bigger footprint on the landscape, and they don’t work yet. Our power grid has to be able to adjust throughout the day to our power demands. I do support renewable energy. We just have to do this the right way. Like making our fossil fuels cleaner while also working on renewable energy. Trust me it can be done example “Carbon Capture” is already being installed on cement plants all over the US as we speak. I am a Electrician so either way my carrier is safe. I say all this with all due respect to you. They can’t talk out of both sides of their mouth with Climate change we can’t control mother nature. They know this also. We are being miss led by some of them. My gut says money talks. I have so much more to say but I don’t have the time right now. I think we should open our minds and maybe listen to on another more. Even if we don’t agree.
I agree. We need to move faster on AGW. Starting any where is at least a start. It’s pathic that the US is now the world’s leader in producing fossil fuels when we should be ushering a new age of human progress. There are flying electric cars now so let her the have roads, cars, fuel and put them where Harriet sits.
Anyone who has ever been involved in trying to reign in a raging wildfire can attest to the awesome power that is unleashed when the energy contained within the wind, the sunshine, and a water starved landscape conspires against humanity. The close calls around Wyoming in communities like Upton and Fort Laramie this last week are the real experiments that Ms. Hageman should be paying closer attention to. We will never be able to tame air, fire, water, or even the ground that we walk upon; but we can at least have a healthy respect for them. We have got to learn to harness this energy and work with the natural world instead of milking it for nickels and dimes.
“We fill out open space with windmills and solar panels, and we’ll see if we can actually run a city of 100,000 people [with] no fossil fuels whatsoever.”
“We’ll see if I can get that off the ground,” Hageman said.
Funny how the only difference between how you “run” or “ruin” a city is what you choose to do with the “I”…
Good old environgelic and evangelic politics and journalism. Keeping it shallow and bi-polar.
WY’s small-minded Rep speaks, and something embarrassing flows forth.
For those down here who are cheering on the fossil free zones as a way to teach those silly Libs a lesson, check out your local library. Tech works on an exponential upward curve, and significant changes in solid state batteries and using big hydro projects as energy storage are on the near horizon. Advances in heating and cooling tech are surging, along with renewable materials replacing dated petro-chemical junk. Coal is already dead (good riddance) and the science whiz kids are coming for WY’s boom-bust fossil fuel economy (good riddance). Boulder is leaning into the problem and experimenting with solutions, while WY’s rep denies there is an issue at all. A little allegory about the ant and grasshopper comes to mind here.
The nuance in this story is WY’s petty Rep isn’t calling climate change a Chinese hoax anymore. The alt-right is progressive in their messaging at least, and are looking for ways to profit off others misery. Soon enough the message will morph into why the Left is responsible for the climate catastrophes the alt-right built from the ground up (pun intended).
Ah Harriet, no time to grow up? Why the childish chatter when serious problems need solving?
Hageman is a nightmare. Weird too.
Vote for Kyle Cameron (D) for Harriet’s seat.
How hilarious…I agree with Rep. Hagemen, let them have what they want…
Wouldn’t it be nice if Ms. Hageman and her ilk grew up? I won’t hold my breath.
I want to move to sane Wyoming because Colorado has become the Rocky Mountain California with Boulder being a mini San Francisco. I’ve made 67+ round trips of the sun, with all of them being in Colorado, and I never thought I’d be seriously considering leaving here because of Leftist inspired big government policies.
Whether Harriet is being serious or facetious, or a combination of both can be debated till the cows come home. However; she has a point in that perpetually virtue signaling Boulder is unrealistic with their anti-hydrocarbon stance. Even if we could replace hydrocarbon energy sources completely; we still need hydrocarbons to run a modern technological society.
My interpretation of Harriet’s comments are she’s telling Boulder to prove to the world that it’s possible to run a 21st Century society on unrealistic ideas. Once Boulder’s residents get a taste of this modern(?) utopia; they’ll push back on the anti-hydrocarbon agenda of the Left.
By the way, there is nothing liberal about a Leftist.
Hageman speaks as though she is not educated to what is reality. Unlike Hageman, Boulder recognizes climate change is a serious issue and needs to be dealt with. Making a joke out of it just shows how little she cares or believes in the danger climate change makes to the world. First off, Boulder never said they could just suddenly get along without renewable energy. They are making an effort to reduce it and gradually switch to renewable energy. I applaud them for that. Wyoming is all about fossil fuels, but we need to loose our grip on that and do what is best for future generations and the health of our planet. We have sun, we have wind, both sources of power. Renewable energy, when set up while partnering/consulting the scientific research community concerning environmental impacts, offers many jobs for years to come, as well as contributing to the health of our planet. Sometimes I am just ashamed and embarrassed by many of our representatives.
Well, at least she’s educated enough to understand a couple of problems associated with Green Energy; the Sun only shines half of the time and the winds don’t blow where most people live, at least within the velocity envelope required for sustained use of wind turbines. She probably doesn’t know that wind turbines and solar panels produce DC current that must be “magically transformed” into AC current at precisely 60Hz before being added to the power grid, otherwise collapsing it whenever any of these additional “magic” components fail. I do think she knows all of these “magic” components are made in China.
She is a looney. Owned outright by the fossil fuels industry.
I remember people telling me how smart Hageman is when she ran for office. Maybe they mean she’s a good attorney, but even that is questionable. It doesn’t take any smarts to be a hack for Trump, and it is downright idiotic to be making proposals for a city in another state even if in jest. Perhaps that is the smart way to cover for her lack of solutions to Wyoming problems.
With her willful disregard for facts and blatant lying about everything relating to the Biden Administration, she has proven herself to be a liability for Wyoming on the national stage. We have a chance to replace her with an articulate, honest, intelligent, and compassionate person in November. It’s time we do so.
maybe hageman can once again co-conspire with aaron million to secretely divert wyoming water to boulder….since she’s so obsessed with colorado
The Hageman family collected $130,000 in PPP “loans”. Don’t you think they should have made it on their own, after all she decries government over spending.
It’s only an entitlement if they aren’t getting it.
Meanwhile , Hageman’s family homestead burned to the ground last week in a wildfire that was undoubtedly due in part to a consequence of man-caused fossil-fuel driven Climate Change decades in the making . The bitter fruit of bad policy from politicians like her all the way back to the 19th century. It should be different when it hits so close to home in the here and now , but why do I think Harriet hasn’t altered her fossil thinking about climate change and fossil fuels in the least ?
Instead she conjugates this snarky proposal to deprive liberal Boulder CO of all fossil fuels as a twisted experiment in alternative energy demonstration. Boulder coincidentally or not is home to the National Atmospheric Research Center for the benefit of all mankind . I do not believe I have ever heard of a city-sized project to go cold turkey on all fossil fuels in order to rely on alternative energy. I don’t know which is worse…Hagemen’s cynicism or her ignorance. She’s definitely cemented herself as being on the Problem side of the equations meant to resolve the negative consequences of Climate Change and continuing reliance on fossil fuels to the detriment of all human life everywhere. Wyoming is really bad about all that.
High time one of these left wing cities tries to run without fossil fuels. Put their beliefs on the line. Boulder of San Francisco would GREAT PLACE. Maybe even Jackson Hole
Mark Wallach alludes to the notion that Colorado’s Marshall Fire was caused by Climate Change and Global Warming, and hence, the need to reduce the use of fossil fuels. Nothing is further from the facts!! The Marshall Fire’s origin had two sources: the first was on private land where the owner was burning old fencing material and the second occurred at a foothills trailhead where a power line broke away from it’s insulator, sparking on a wooden support. The two fires took place where 40-to-80 mph winter winds are the norm. Furthermore, Colorado’s Front Range had experienced a very rainy, wet Spring that year, which caused the growth of a high volume of ground fuels. It’s also a fact that a Boulder County Fire Department inspected the private burn pit upon the request of a concerned neighbor and declared it “safe” before it flared beyond its containment. Climate Change and Global Warming had nothing to do with it!!! One more fact: “fossil fuel” as applied to “natural gas” is a canard, Methane is a compound observed throughout the Universe in gaseous, liquid, and solid forms!
Robert Koller is correct in saying climate change had nothing to do with the Marshall fire. It was trash burning and electrical. I did live in that area for a while and I know the ferocious winds that can come down the canyons that time of year, and that’s a natural event that’s been occurring for thousands of years. Another thing rarely mentioned is when you have 4000 sf houses packed in a subdivision only 10 or 15 ft. apart, there is no defensible space against a wind wiped fire.
While we develop alternative types of power, we still need to use fossil fuels. Why is this so hard to understand?
Thank you Rep. Hageman your a great asset to Wyoming and America 🇺🇸
Seriously, I hope “you’re” being sarcastic.
Hageman is an embarrassment to Wyoming. I cringe whenever she opens her mouth.
Brett. Jackie and others. I do believe you only knock her because all of you just can’t admit to the fact living with out fossil fuels will be very difficult. In fact with out fossil fuels you wouldn’t have your cell phone or computers. Not even the clothes you wear. No nylon/polyester/very little cotton. There is no such thing as green house gases. CO2 & all of them cool off. No gas retains and holds its heat. Impossible!!
Oh Harriet, you should really keep your focus on Wyoming. You know – where you actually represent the people – and not a state where you have ZERO sway. Wyoming, this is pure partisan hackery, and we deserve a serious Representative who does more than just blow hot air and throw shade.
She is just “weird”. That’s what happens when one gets too close to Trump.
Yes, she is weird indeed.
Maybe Hageman should give our water to them, like she tried to before. I sure wish Wyoming voters would stop voting for goofballs like Hageman.
Just plain Weird.
👍
I went to college in Boulder – graduating in 1981. Not the same place! I just love Representative Hageman & think she is spot on! Go go go! If you think you can live without it – try it!
It is now confirmed – Congresswoman Hageman is weird.
Go Harriet,
Brilliant Boulder plan!
A lot of people are debating Rep. Harriet Hageman’s plan to undertake a fossil fuel-free experiment in Boulder, Colorado. Boulder City Councilman Mark Wallach finds the idea unrealistic and disparaging of the city’s attempts to address climate change, even while it emphasizes the continuous struggle between reliance on fossil fuels and the development of renewable energy. The plan emphasizes the more significant environmental and political obstacles to the switch to renewable energy sources.
You don’t switch from fossil to renewable you augment fossil with renewable where energy density permits.