Face The State Staff Report
When Federico Peña heads to the Democratic National Convention's national stage next week, he's scheduled to present his vision for bringing environmentally friendly reforms to the U.S. economy. Meanwhile, local critics charge that former Denver mayor's legacy has left the city with a much larger carbon footprint.
PeñaFTS Staff Photo
Peña, who went on to head up the nation's transportation and energy departments under the Clinton Administration after serving as Denver mayor from 1984 to 1992, is expected to advocate alternatives to oil and natural gas.
"We can invest, as Sen. [Barack] Obama has proposed, $15 billion a year over ten year resulting in $150 billion over ten years in new technology, whether it's wind, solar or new battery technology," Peña said at a press conference Monday. "Right now the federal government only has $3 billion it's investing in clean energy technology."
His image as an environmentally friendly leader serves in stark contrast, however, to what detractors pinpoint as his lasting legacy: Denver International Airport, located on an an annexed portion of Adams County land 25 miles from downtown. Prior to the airport's opening, which Peña spearheaded in 1989 when he persuaded the city's voters to authorize the $3 billion project, travelers used Stapleton, an airport located several miles closer to downtown.
Former Senate President John Andrews, a Republican, said he hopes Peña recognizes the burden the extended commute has put on residents, as well as Democrats flying in to Denver for next week's convention.
“I cannot fault former Mayor Peña for not having a crystal ball in the early 90s and being able to foresee the current state of eco-hysteria,” said Andrews. “But at least he should urge delegates to get to the convention by rickshaw or pack mule or some other means than carbon-spewing cars.”
Jim Pfaff, state director of Americans for Prosperity, argues that Peña is just jumping on the green bandwagon to garner popular appeal. “It’s just another case of environmental alarmism,” said Pfaff. “But it’s not about the environment at all, it’s about growing government and raising taxes.”
Of the 25 miles extending between downtown Denver and DIA, the 10 miles closest to DIA are known as Peña Boulevard. Today, DIA is further from a city enter than any other U.S. airport currently serving a major metropolitan area. Only Dulles International Airport, outside of Washington, D.C., presents travelers with a longer commute. But for that region's visitors and residents also have an option in Reagan National, an airport located just a few miles from the Capitol in Arlington, Virginia.
DNC organizers are offering attendees the opportunity to purchase "carbon offsets" to mitigate their carbon footprint. According to CarbonFootprint.com, a carbon footprint is "a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment, and in particular climate change. It relates to the amount of greenhouse gases produced in our day-to-day lives through burning fossil fuels for electricity, heating and transportation."
Once individuals or businesses calculate their "footprint" as a measure of tons of carbon dioxide, they are encouraged to buy offsets, which are advertised as ways to support the development of new clean energy sources. As Face The State has previously reported, such offsets have not been without controversy. DNC delegates were being encouraged to buy offsets in support of a wind turbine in Wray despite the fact that the turbine had never functioned correctly. DIA scrapped similar plans to offer passengers the ability to purchase offsets in June, citing a lackluster response from the public.
DIA spokesperson Chuck Cannon said that on the Fourth of July of this year, a day he expects to generate as much traffic as the first day of next week's convention, about 110,000 cars traveled to and from the airport via Peña Boulevard.
Over the course of the convention, if those cars travel 25 miles each way between DIA and downtown, they will together travel approximately 5.5 million miles. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates the average passenger vehicle gets 20.3 miles per gallon, emitting 19.4 pounds of carbon dioxide per gallon. Using that data, Monday's DIA traffic would burn 271,000 gallons of gasoline, producing 2,384 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
If these same cars were to travel to Stapleton, however, they would collectively travel 1.1 million miles, burning 54,190 gallons of gas, cumulatively producing just a fifth of the pollution, at 477 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
According to former City Council member and Deputy Mayor Stephanie Foote, the remote site for DIA was chosen to help the city avoid further lawsuits with Park Hill residents concerned about traffic and pollution. The new site also boasts safer runway designs.
"We looked into simply extending runways into the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, but that didn't solve the noise problem," Foote said. "Airplanes were getting bigger and faster so safety became an increasingly serious issue."
Concerns over Denver airport noise did not cease with the closure of Stapleton, however. In 2002, the City and County of Denver paid $26 to Adams County to settle a lawsuit claiming violations of a 1988 intergovernmental pact over airplane noise.
According to Dave Kopel, research director at the Golden-based Independence Institute, the new airport was unnecessary. "Peña was the mayor and he should have worked to instead expand and improve Stapleton."
While Kopel concedes that Stapleton had its own host of problems, he maintains that sticking with the existing location would have been better for the city. "It certainly needed more parking and it also needed another longer runway, but that could have easily been done. DIA was a 'make work', New Deal style government boondoggle pushed by a guy who thought that a big government project was the way to deal with a recession."
Kopel also expressed concerns about DIA's signature roof, designed to look like snow capped peaks and made from 15 acres of Teflon-coated, woven fiber glass. Kopel alleges the roof wastes "incredible amounts" of energy.
Attempts to contact Peña for this story were unsuccessful.