Denver — Last week, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet traveled throughout the state to meet with Coloradans, hear about the challenges they face, and celebrate investments from congressionally directed spending, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
On Monday, Bennet hosted a town hall in Northglenn with Colorado U.S. Representative Yadira Caraveo. On Wednesday, Bennet visited with local leaders in Steamboat alongside Colorado U.S. Representative Joe Neguse to see how their Flexible Housing Partnerships Act would support housing projects in Colorado’s mountain communities and then spoke at the Colorado Water Congress Summer Conference to celebrate federal investments he fought to secure for Western water infrastructure. On Thursday, Bennet visited the Ruedi Reservoir near Basalt to hear how local officials are working together to face drought and to hear about how his Stop the Spread of Invasive Mussels Act would help slow the movement of aquatic invasive species into Colorado. Finally, Bennet traveled to Pueblo on Friday to hear how federal funding is supporting local law enforcement, how tax credits he fought to include in the IRA are helping the world’s largest wind tower facility expand and create new jobs in Colorado, and kicked off the Colorado State Fair and Rodeo.
Here’s what they’re saying about Bennet’s stops across Colorado:
Colorado Politics: Colorado’s federal lawmakers touts water progress, challenges
August 24, 2023
In his remarks, Bennet talked about the recent federal court decision to block the Uinta Railway project, which would have transported crude oil along the Colorado River, including in Colorado.
“The last thing we need in a 1,200-year drought is to put a bunch of oil trains” on tracks next to the headwaters of the Colorado River, he said, thanking those in the audience who have worked to block that project.
Bennet also spoke about the Arkansas Valley Conduit, his first piece of legislation when he went to the U.S. Senate in 2009. People have died waiting for clean water in the valley, he said, but thanks to the recent work the project will be finished in five years.
Sometimes generations lose track, Bennet said.
“But this is a generation that’s not losing track because we’ve decided that we’re gonna invest in America again. We’re going to begin to focus on our country,” he said.
Money isn’t just going to the conduit. There’s also $350 million for the South Platte River to help some of the poorest communities in the state who face uncertainty because of flood waters. Federal money is also helping to replace 1,000 old water meters in Greeley, updating aging infrastructure in the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel and Treatment Plant, modernizing the Mayville ditch, improving canals in the Grand Valley, and completing restoration and resiliency efforts throughout the San Juan national forest.
But the focus also needs to include keeping an eye on the Lower Basin states, Bennet said, making sure they spend the money to achieve permanent reductions in water use, as well as “continuing to come to the table in a way that it reflects the kind of collaboration that we’re talking about.”
Aspen Daily News: Increased attention on issues evident at Colorado Water Congress
August 25, 2023
Speakers said they are seeing more public attention to water than they ever have in the past. Historian of the American West Patty Limerick, who delivered the first speaking event of the conference, said that when she first moved to Colorado in 1984, she saw a great deal of “complacency and taken-for-grantedness” in Coloradans regarding water. Now, she said, there is much more awareness of the issue.
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And federal legislators said Washington is no different. Bennet said that even for legislators from the East Coast and Midwest, the importance of the Colorado River Basin and the drought across the West is apparent.
“It’s 40 million people that rely on the Colorado River for their farms, for their ranches, for their communities. It is a substantial portion of the American population, and what we’re dealing with here is of national importance,” Bennet said.
Aspen Public Radio: Sen. Michael Bennet talks invasive mussels, water management at Ruedi Reservoir
August 24, 2023
Colorado’s senior U.S. senator Michael Bennet was part of a large contingent of officials who visited Ruedi Reservoir on Thursday. Bennet, a Democrat, headed up the Fryingpan River from Basalt to learn more about the region’s water and aquatic wildlife management.
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Bennet said recent federal investments — like $4 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act for the Colorado River Basin — are crucial to helping partnerships that maintain projects like Ruedi.
“None of that would have happened without advocacy from the people that we’re meeting with today, saying, ‘Look, we are applying our imagination to this landscape, we need resources to support the fact that we are constrained in the face of this drought,’” he said.
He lauded the partnerships that go into managing Ruedi, between local officials with RWAPA, state agencies like Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and federal bodies like and the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Bennet said creative solutions like the ones these groups engineer are the lifeblood of western water management.
Aspen Daily News: Bennet flexes his mussels legislation at Ruedi
August 28, 2023
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet was already on board with efforts to prevent the spread of invasive mussels to waterways in Colorado and other western states but something he learned Thursday at Ruedi Reservoir drove home a powerful message about the stakes involved.
The Colorado Democrat participated in a roundtable discussion at Ruedi with officials possessing expertise in various water issues. Robert Walters, Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s invasive species program manager, described to a group of about 25 participants what had to be done at Highline Reservoir outside of Fruita when zebra mussels were discovered late last year.
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Despite his awareness of the issue, Bennet told reporters after Thursday’s roundtable that it was valuable to hear firsthand what was done to rid Highline of mussels and “why what they did there would be different from what they could do here.”
And that, Bennet continued, is why it is so valuable for him to get out of Washington, D.C., and into the field to meet with people affected by various issues.
“There’s nothing like it,” he said of the field trips. “You can read all the briefing books you want — and I do read all the briefing books, it’s a lot — it doesn’t replace being out here on the ground, listening to people and hearing what they’re thinking.”
Pueblo Chieftain: How a new 3D scanner could help Pueblo law enforcement prove cases in court
August 29, 2023
Pueblo law enforcement now has another tool to improve the accuracy and speed of crime scene documentation through a new FARO Focus Laser Scanner.
The purchase of the scanner was made possible through congressionally directed spending requests sponsored by Colorado’s U.S. senators. The scanner is the first project for which the city of Pueblo has received congressionally directed spending dollars, according to a city press release.
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The federal grant of $86,000 helped pay for the purchase of the equipment as well as training officers in how to use it, Jesik said. According to the city’s release, five people at Pueblo PD are currently trained on how to use the equipment and five more officers — as well as some deputies from the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office — will be trained this fall.
In the city’s press release, Pueblo Police Chief Chris Noeller thanked Colorado’s representatives in the U.S. Senate, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, for supporting the grant.
“This will help with our staffing concerns and allows for more accurate and cutting-edge technology to assist with our investigations which saves time and increases our attention to details,” Noeller said.
Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo mayor and US senator tout local benefits of Inflation Reduction Act
August 30, 2023
Bennet on Friday toured CS Wind, a wind turbine tower manufacturer with factories around the globe, and discussed how it’s benefiting from tax breaks made possible by the IRA and Pueblo’s role in the nationwide transition to clean energy production.
“Pueblo is going to play a huge role in that,” U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet told members of the media after touring CS Wind with Chairman Gim Seong-gon and Pueblo Mayor Nick Gradisar. “Partly because of (CS Wind), but also the work you see around solar.”
CS Wind earlier this year broke ground on its expansion plans that will add jobs and increase its facility footprint at its Pueblo location.
The IRA, which Bennet championed, prompted that expansion decision and its tax incentives are helping CS Wind’s long-term goals in the U.S., Seong-gon told Bennet. One of those goals is to produce 10,000 wind turbines per year in Pueblo by 2028.
“We’re actually ahead of other countries in terms of what these incentives look like and that’s a big sea change for the U.S.,” Bennet said. “It’s bringing jobs back and putting our steel workers back to work.”