I'm really late to this story, but I should note that a group of activists has managed to defeat in committee a plan that would help a private developer build a new toll road (dubbed the SuperSlab by opponents) that would run parallel to I-25 from Pueblo to Fort Collins. There is a nineteenth century law on the books that allows private toll road builders to do their thing -- even exercising the right of condemnation if they want -- but the promoters of this toll road project wanted additional legislative assitance. They got shut down in committee, thanks in large part to activists organized through blogs like Front Range Toll Road Warriors and NoSuperSlab.org, with an assist from Environment Colorado.
Apparently, there is a toll road industry website (TollRoadsNews.com) that is venomously denouncing foes of the SuperSlab as a bunch of "leftist pols" from Denver and Boulder (we'll take that as a compliment) and indeed uses the word "redneck" to describe the opponents of the project. (So which is it, urban lefties or rednecks?) The Rocky's transportation columnist says the website called the opponents "unscrupulous" too.
Just think -- if the SuperSlab's promoters had gone to the legislature two years ago, this thing would have sailed through with hardly a peep. This project has given environmentalists a golden opportunity to forge alliances with people out on the High Plains, the same way they have moved closer to people in rural Western Colorado in recent years over oil and gas development issues.
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