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Author: Dave Tabor

Another Advantage for Colorado: “Zone Skipping”

I just learned something fascinating.  Not the most profound post, but who knew that Colorado has an advantage for fulfilling houses to ship products?  Sure, we know that Colorado is sort of in the middle of the country so maybe companies would want to ship from here to both coasts, but actually, that’s not exactly right.  There’s something I learned during my episode with Irene Scharmack of QuickBox that makes shipping from Colorado to both coasts CHEAPER. It’s called “Zone Skipping.”  Here’s what happens… 

Big freight companies like FedEx and UPS, and others you and I wouldn’t know, charge “by zone” to ship.  From Denver to a coast might require crossing two or three zones and shipping fees would reflect that. To reduce those costs, trucks are loaded late in the day from Denver, some heading west, some east, and travel through the night to bypass one or more zones.  In the morning at a distribution point, packages are sorted and continue on their way. Another fascinating way for Colorado to thrive! 

Colorado Has Amazing Clean Tech Companies!

image from Travertine homepage

After writing this post in the last newsletter, I’m now tweaking it a bit and sharing again because I’ve just released the episode recorded with Laura Lammers, PhD – founder and CEO of Travertine, a company that is capturing CO2 from industrial processes and permanently sequestering it – through chemistry – into minerals used in products like concrete – so amazing! (see episode notes and link above)  I mentioned a pattern: that recent ProCO360 episodes feature Longpath (“Flattening the Climate Change Curve”), and Carbon America (“Putting Carbon 1 Mile Deep in Colorado”).  I was this week listening to an episode of the “Acquired” podcast (see below), and the hosts sung the praises of their sponsor, Crusoe.  Wow!  Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller was my guest on episode 97, “Turning Gas to Bitcoin!”   

Repeating my last post: many people and industries remain slow to change fossil fuel usage – most climate scientists believe too slow.  It’s exciting to see Colorado businesses developing and scaling innovative science, and partnering with key industries like steel, oil & gas, and concrete, to massively combat climate change.  Want to feel hopeful?  Listen to the episodes listed above! 

Why I Like Ranked Choice Voting – Coming to Colorado?

No one I speak with seems to think that the increasing chasm between the left and the right is healthy for governing our communities or our country.  The chasm won’t close if we continue on our current course.  Why?   

  1. Media outlets make money delivering what I’m calling “angertainment.”  You know what I mean by that.  It’s profitable so they won’t stop, and (sigh) human nature shows that neither will viewership. 
  2. “Moderate” voters, almost by definition, don’t get fired up – while sadly, supporters of fringe candidates do.  That’s why we don’t see frenzied rallies for moderate candidates.  Really, who stands in a long line at an ice-cream shop to order vanilla? 

There is an issue that moderate voters can get excited about because it’s easy and smart: RANKED CHOICE VOTING.   

Let’s say there are 5 candidates for an office.  Without ranked choice voting, an extreme right or left candidate can get elected with less than 50% of the vote.  That’s what’s happening now – especially in primaries where many candidates are running and one extreme candidate wins with, say, 35% over two more moderate candidates, one with, say, 20% and one with 31% for a total of 51% for moderate candidates who split that vote.  While the majority wanted moderate, they got the minority’s fringe. 

Let’s play that again with RANKED CHOICE VOTING.  No one got the majority so now we go to ranked votes, dropping the lowest vote getter and retabulating until there’s a candidate with a majority.  As rankings kick in, the lowest vote getter is removed and the second choice of those who voted for the dropped candidate are counted.  Depending on how voters choose, it’s possible that a moderate candidate wins, defeating the fringe candidate.  If a jurisdiction has all fringe candidates, well then, that’s who will win.  But in the scenario above, we’d likely end with something closer to a consensus candidate – one more palatable to more of the electorate.   

Why am I writing to ProCO360 listeners about this?  Because Colorado business leaders I know want a business climate that’s calm and predictable so they can invest and grow in Colorado.   

The Secretary of State is in the process of certifying the petition signatures and it looks like enabling ranked choice voting will be on the Colorado November ballot.   

Moderates, this is something we can get fired up about!   

Humor in National Politics, From Colorado!

We need an injection of humor into the nasty political fray.  I cracked up when I heard Governor Polis’s response to inquiries about being considered for VP on the Dem ticket:  “Obviously if somebody asked I’d take a serious look at it, but my phone hasn’t rung yet,” said Polis. “If they do the polling and it turns out that they need a 49-year-old balding, gay Jew from Boulder, Colorado – they got my number.” 

Love our Governor Polis’s politics or hate them – it doesn’t matter – funny comments like his are a welcome relief valve in today’s pressure cooker of political animosity.  Glad it came from Colorado! 

Thinking Differently

I’m not talking about Apple’s famous ad.  I’m referring brain flexing conversation I had with Scott Hutton, CEO of Biodesix (episode 171 of ProCO360: A Test for Lung Cancer Probability). I loved it because it caused me to stop and think differently about something that I’d always assumed to be one way: black and white, yes or no. It was exciting and refreshing to try to get my head around a different way to think about a concept… to explore with someone who knows a subject who could help me in a context I hadn’t experienced beforeIt makes me hungry for new topics that can stimulate new thinking in that way.  

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