The FBI has joined a criminal investigation of what police said appears to be an “intentional attack” on gas service lines in Aspen, Colorado, that left thousands of residents and businesses without heat as temperatures in the skiing mecca plunged to near zero degrees.
Work crews are scrambling to restore gas service, and local authorities handed out electric space heaters to residents still without heat Tuesday, as a storm is forecast to bring up to 8 inches of snow in the Rocky Mountains region this week. Temperatures are forecast to fall to 2 degrees in Aspen on Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service.
Aspen police said the apparently coordinated acts of vandalism occurred Saturday night at three separate Black Hills Energy gas line sites, one in Aspen and two elsewhere in Pitkin County.
At one of the targeted sites, police said they found the words “Earth first” scrawled, and investigators were looking into whether the self-described “radical environmental group” Earth First! was involved.
Aspen Assistant Police Chief Bill Linn told reporters that the saboteurs appeared to “have some familiarity” with the natural gas system.
“They tampered with flow lines. They turned off gas lines," Linn said.
Linn said physical evidence recovered at the scenes of the vandalism included footprints left in the snow. He said there were no security cameras at the three locations that were hit.
Trust me, the residents of Aspen survived quote nicely.
The average Aspen house costs $2.7 million.
Aspen also has a law that if you visit the town you must have a negative covid test in the past 48 hours.
The workers and average people live in Basalt or Glenwood Springs or some other outlying town.
I love Glenwood springs and the drive through that part of Colorado is absolutely beautiful! Too bad the leftist Hollywood elites took it over so the rest can’t enjoy it!
When you look at the state, Aspen, Vail, Steamboat, Telluride, Breckeridge have been pretty much taken over by the Hollywood elite.
In a different life I pretty much spent every weekend there. At the time the town was affordable.
It has been many years since I frequented that part of the country, as I have friends and family both in Greeley and Ft Collins. Used to Snow board Breckinridge, Winter Park, Copper, A Basin a lot and afterwards use to go this place in Idaho Springs where they had the best Fajitas with Bison meat in the world. Can’t imagine what it’s like now or if that place still exists. I still like Green River Fire Gorge though!
Loved Aspen Mountain as well as Snowmass. Spent time at Monarch and Purgatory as they always had a ton of snow. Before they developed Copper Mountain it was a great place to ski. Drive up to the loft get your ticket and go. They eliminate all the parking and built condos and moved the parking out to the freeway. Same thing happened at Breckenridge, progress.
Parking in Vail and Breckeridge is priced on demand. More people the higher the price for parking. Vail has demand pricing more people higher the price.
Skiing/Boarding s no longer a family affair as a day of skiing, transportation, lift ticket and lunch can run over 200 bucks+ for the day. Carpooling is popular and take your lunch to cut the expense but still is expensive.
Ft. Collins use to be a nice place to go, had a cousin that livd there for a while and drove up regularly. Today it a traffic nightmare.
Haven’t spent much time in Greeley.
Been to those places as well as Wolf Creek. Use to live in Durango for a spell, loved it there, but very clicky if you are deemed an outsider. I spent my final weeks there before deploying to Iraq so it was a temporary slice of heaven for me at the time.
At that price point they probably have back up generators that run on propane (even for homes that run on natural gas and electricity). It’s a common thing to do here, especially given power outages in hurricane season.
My favorite to ski was Crested Butte, but that was years ago, lol.
That is correct. Many have redundant systems in their homes.
I have a back up generator as do many in the west, same energy company, Black Hills as they are a bit unreliable at times.
Then again, the topic is Environmental Terrorism.
So, back to that. I’m sure the folks will be caught. Sounds like some morons but it does expose weaknesses that can be exploited by morons.
We are ripe for terrorism concerning utilities.
Drive by a power plant see any serious security?
Drive by a power sub station, most are secured by a cyclone fence. 4-5’ tall. Some have motion sensors.
Cell infrastructure? Zero security. Many have fences and locks on the doors. Bonus they do have alarms t there provides, usually in a central location/state usually hundreds to a thousand mils away.
Oli Wells, zero security. fracking sites, little security. Wind mills, zero security. Solar sites cyclone fencing at best.
Fiber infrastructure, ROTFLMAO. Zero security at rgen sits, a locked door is standard. The problem we face is our infrastructure was created when terrorism wasn’t a thought or concern. Today it would cost an untold amount to secure facilities.
The list is endless.
Gender studies in Pakistan is a higher priority. 
The problem we face is security of privately owned facility a Federal responsibility or a private business issue?
As to the pork issue, it would be great to know who sponsored the idea to send money to a countries that hate the US.
That is actually a great question. I would imagine it would fall to the privately owned facility. However, if sabotaged it would be a local law enforcement issue. Or, if a member of a terrorist group that crosses state lines a Federal issue?
Imagine the utilities going to the PUC and requesting rate increases for facility security.
In Colorado the PUC turns down the conversion cost from Coal to natural gas so utilities are shutting down the power plants. Can’t wait for the results of that stupid decision and the brown outs to begin.
The government makes laws ad the the states refuse to pay for the costs of the laws.
Well, the other option is to not have security and increase rates for repairs. Present which is more cost effective. I have no idea what the numbers would be.
You made a good decision when you moved. It’s their problem now.
The cost is passed to the consumer, one way or another.
They are small and generally on at a time so they are un noticed by the commissions.
That is correct however the commissions are not held responsible.
I love Wyoming, a return to civilized living.