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WEEK OF JULY 17, 2025
VOLUME 118 | ISSUE 29
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Colorado considers challenging ‘energy emergency’ January declaration invoked by BLM to fasttrack rain facility expansion BY DAVID O. WILLIAMS COLORADO NEWSLINE
property of Daniel Carmichael, and that the same property was home to a large house called the Carmichael mansion. “That particular mansion was used as the first county courthouse for Adams County, and in the basement was the first county jail, which then burned down,” Kring said. Kring said Reither persuaded her to join the Brighton Historic Preservation Commission. “I was in the position and served two separate terms. I like everything historical, and it’s what attracted me to the field of history. Of course, I don’t want to see history disappear, especially with buildings
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office will consider joining a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s declaration in January of a national energy emergency, he told Newsline in an exclusive interview. The Trump administration’s Bureau of Land Management invoked the emergency declaration to complete accelerated environmental review of a permit to expand a loading facility near Price, Utah for oil coming out of the nearby Uinta Basin. The expansion could increase oil capacity on the main rail line through Colorado by up to 80,000 barrels a day. It’s anticipated that the expansion of what’s known as the Wildcat Loadout facility — located on publicly owned federal lands — and other nearby facilities will allow the trucking and transfer to rail of up to 75% of the oil proposed for transport in the Uinta Basin Railway project. Eagle County and state officials have long opposed increased oil trains along the Colorado River. In a June 27 letter to Jerry Davis, acting Utah state director for the BLM, Weiser wrote that an expedited environmental assessment for the proposed Wildcat right-of-way expansion would be a “violation of applicable laws and regulations” that would block proper public input and “subject Colorado communities to significant economic, environmental, and health and safety risks.” Weiser argued there is no national energy emergency given the United States produced more oil last year than any nation in history, and he urged the BLM to follow standard, legally required procedures in reviewing the project. An attorney for Eagle County and an environmental group that successfully sued the federal government to delay the rail project, also sent letters. However, the BLM issued its approval, finding “no significant impact” related to the expansion, which Colorado opposes due to increased derailment, wildfire and oil-spill risks,
SEE HISTORIAN, P6
SEE ENERGY, P5
Robin Kring, the Brighton History Detective, is researching the history of Brighton’s name and where it came from. PHOTO BY NATALIE BECK
Historian seeks the source of Brighton’s name Birthplace, vacation spot or marketing gimmick, reason for name unclear BY BELEN WARD BELEN@COTLN.ORG
Historians know that Daniel F. Carmichael filed the first official plat for what would become known as Brighton, Colorado, on Feb. 16, 1881. Most agree that he was responsible for picking that name. History Detective Robin Kring said the big question is why he picked that name. “One of the tales you’ll hear is that his wife, Alice Evans Carmichael, named the city Brighton after the town where she grew up, but there are different accounts of this,” Kring said. “One story takes place in her hometown of Brighton Beach, New York, and another is set in Brighton, Massachusetts.”
Historians are not even sure that his wife was responsible for the name. Kring notes that his wife, Alice Evans Carmichael, is often confused with his sister, Alice Carmichael Skeel. “Meanwhile, I was sleuthing—going through all this, double-checking my facts, and doing research. It turns out that sometimes a clerical error occurs in a historical document, resulting from a misplaced comma,” Kring said. Digging in
It’s the kind of historical question that Kring really enjoys. Kring moved to Brighton in 2001, where she met Pat Reither, the city historian. Kring said Reither told her she lived on the
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