Silt resident Caleb Waller opened Monday’s Garfield County Commissioner (BOCC) meeting with a plea to stop antisemitism. Waller told the BOCC Monday that, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), antisemitic attacks have increased by 388% in the U.S. in the last five years. In fact, ADL reports in its 2022 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents that 3,697 incidents occurred in 2022, up from 1,986 in 2017 and the highest amount on record since 1979. Waller stated that his Jewish friends in the area feel “uneasy” and he questioned how Garfield County is doing in terms of antisemitism and racism.
According to his LinkedIn profile and a Feb. 2019 article in the Jerusalem Post, Waller is the former creative director of the evangelical Hayovel Ministry, founded by his father in 2007 to help Jewish farmers in the West Bank. Waller left the ministry in 2019. His LinkedIn profile states “Caleb … continues his father’s legacy by traveling regularly, along with his family, to Israel to help secure the Jewish people in their covenant land.”
Waller said his family is in Israel but did not mention the Hayovel Ministry. “Where are the Black people in Garfield County?” he asked, stating that people go where they are welcomed. He urged the BOCC and the audience to make Jewish people feel welcome in the county.
“I think you will find all three of us as commissioners in support of welcoming all people,” said Commissioner Mike Samson. “I hope the Jewish community realizes that we support them,” he added. “And, with that being said, I would just like to announce that the Rifle Bears are in the championship game for football.”
Nuclear energy
The first item on the agenda was a presentation about nuclear energy in western Colorado. Matt Solomon, project manager for the Northwest Colorado Energy Initiative (NCEI), stated that the NCEI wanted to “get ahead of the activists” and briefed the BOCC about what the group is doing to transition away from coal-based energy in the state. According to material obtained by The Sopris Sun, the NCEI works with the Associated Governments of Northern Colorado (AGNC). Based on requirements from Colorado HB23-1247 to assess advanced energy solutions in rural Colorado, NCEI’s main objective is to foster a regional discussion for an energy transition that includes nuclear energy and to survey the public.
Solomon said the group is collaborating with Colorado Mesa University’s Public Policy Institute and the Colorado School of Mines, and has received funding from Con-Edison, a large utility company on the East Coast.
“Once we get fully funded, we’ll begin the surveys and the outreach and the education with the public,” said Solomon. “Let’s figure out where the public’s opinion lies to begin with and then let’s root out the misinformation and discuss the facts of transitioning from coal.”
Samson added, “Younger people did not live through Three Mile Island so they’re open to nuclear energy,” paraphrasing what he’d once heard from an assistant to former Colorado state Senator Bob Rankin. In 1979, a cooling malfunction caused the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor #2 in Pennsylvania. The event has been a poster child for the hazards of nuclear energy for the past four decades. Solomon claimed that waste from newer, smaller nuclear reactors does not exist, citing French efforts at recycling energy from nuclear waste.
The next item on the agenda was a comment letter from the BOCC to the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in response to a proposed rule change published in the Federal Register in October. The proposed change was put forth by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Intrinsic Exchange Group (IEG) to create a new investment class called natural asset companies (NAC). ESG Today, which covers environmental, social and governance issues for investors, reports that NYSE has taken a minority stake in IEG, whose founding investors include the Inter-American Development Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation.
From Fox News to Counterpunch, media reports suggest that NACs are akin to Mother Nature, Inc and that this investment class will monetize ecosystems and natural processes. The Garco BOCC is against NACs for a variety of reasons, including how they may impact federal lands and federal land management. The Board’s comments include those made by the American Stewards of Liberty, the Financial Fairness Alliance, and the Blue Ribbon Coalition, and urge the SEC not to adopt the proposed rule.
The Board also heard updates from the county human services department and the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
To view the entire meeting, visit www.garfield-county.com/board-commissioners