Currently, spouses of U.S. citizens must leave the country to apply and are often barred from returning to their families for as long as 10 years. The new rule would allow many of them to get back to their families much quicker.

“This policy will save the lives of American citizens,” said U.S. Rep Jared Polis, D-Colorado. “Jake Martinez would be alive today if this had been in place. It’s past time that we reformed our immigration system so that families aren’t torn apart or sent off to dangerous cities like Juarez, Mexico as they wait to have their cases processed. Congress still must pass comprehensive immigration reform but this proposal is a welcome change over an unfair process that splits apart families and sends husbands, wives and children off to some of the most perilous parts of the world while their cases are heard.”

The case of Tania Nava Palacios of Colorado is a primary example of the danger inherent in the current process, Polis said in a press release. Nava Palacios was forced to depart Colorado and to live in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, with her U.S. citizen husband and son while USCIS adjudicated her I-601. Her husband, Jake Martinez, was killed in front of their home. The new process announced today for the adjudication of these waivers will prevent other families from the United States from suffering a similar fate, Polis’s office said.

Allowing these individuals to apply in the U.S. before they must depart the country would create a more predictable and transparent process while improving processing times, Polis said. It would also encourage individuals who may be eligible for permanent residency to apply for a waiver by reducing the amount of time they would need to spend away from their U.S. citizen spouse or parent.

Holder said the memo (PDF) – which stipulated that the Justice Department would be unlikely to prosecute people on federal drug laws if they were in compliance with individual state’s laws regarding medical marijuana – is still in effect.

Polis, noting that medical marijuana businesses face a difficult, if not impossible, task in opening bank accounts, asked Holder whether the Department of Justice would prosecute banks or law-abiding medical marijuana businesses for deposits related to sales of marijuana. Again, Holder said such cases would be a low priority.

Reached by email after the exchange, Polis communications director Chris Fitzgerald said:

Congressman Polis is pleased that Attorney General Holder once again affirmed that state-legal and well-regulated medical marijuana businesses are not an enforcement priority for the Justice Department, which is in keeping with his and the Department’s statements on the matter for some time now. Colorado has shown that marijuana can and should be regulated at the state level.

“Eric Holder said ‘I don’t know’ three or four times,” noted Art Way, Colorado manager for the Drug Policy Alliance. “He didn’t really address the issue with banks. The climate for legal medical marijuana businesses is not really as good as Holder would have us believe. They have sent threatening letters to landlords and others, and that really goes against the spirit of the Ogden memo.

“Medical marijuana businesses in Denver employ 5,000 people. It is a viable industry that is really helping us in a hard economic time, with no negative effect on public safety,” Way said.

A holding pond for fracking fluids in Texas.

“The final study plan looks at the full cycle of water in hydraulic fracturing, from the acquisition of the water, through the mixing of chemicals and actual fracturing, to the post-fracturing stage, including the management of flowback and produced or used water as well as its ultimate treatment and disposal,” EPA officials said in a press release. “Earlier this year, EPA announced its selection of locations for five retrospective and two prospective case studies.”

One of those retrospective study areas is in Colorado – a state where new fracking regulations are being drafted and an independent review recently recommended a more comprehensive look at water resources available for fracking.

The process, which can use up to 1 million gallons of water per frack job, also includes sand and frequently undisclosed chemical additives. Fracking fluids are injected under higher pressure deep into oil and gas wells to fracture tight sand and rock and free up more gas or oil. Critics of the process say it can lead to groundwater contamination.

The EPA’s “Plan to Study the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing on Drinking Water Resources (pdf)” is now available on the agency’s website. Initial EPA findings will be released to the public in 2012, although the final report won’t be ready until 2014.

U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., wrote the legislation to authorize the study and also is a co-sponsor, with Colorado Reps. Diana DeGette and Jared Polis, of the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act. His district in New York includes the heavily drilled Marcellus Shale.

“I applaud the EPA for releasing a final research plan for its study on hydraulic fracturing,” Hinchey said in a prepared statement. “I wrote the legislative language that initiated this study and, as I had intended, the final study will look at the full cycle of water used in the hydraulic fracturing process.

“Our country is in the middle of shale gas rush, but unbiased, scientific research into hydraulic fracturing is almost non-existent. This EPA study will provide invaluable information to the public and policy makers interested in understanding the impact of hydraulic fracturing on our water resources.”

Support is especially strong among liberals and young people, but support is strong especially among men. Only 46 percent of women favor legalization. All regions of the country favor legalizing marijuana except the south.

Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and a retired Baltimore narcotics cops, said, “The Obama administration’s escalation of the ‘war on drugs’ and its attacks on state medical marijuana laws are only giving more and more Americans the opportunity to realize just how ridiculous and harmful our prohibition-based drug laws are. These numbers from Gallup, as well as the California Medical Association’s recent endorsement of marijuana legalization, show that momentum is on the side of reformers, so it’s no wonder the drug warriors are getting scared and ramping up their attacks. People are clearly waking up to the fact that we can no longer afford the fiscal and human costs of this failed ‘war on drugs.’ Savvy politicians would do well to take heed,” he said in a prepared statement.

Colorado Congressman Jared Polis has introduced legislation that would legalize marijuana at the federal level, but allow individual states to set their own laws.

In Colorado, there is likely to be an initiative on the ballot in 2012 that would legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana by adults.

Their message: Congress is getting too radical on Capitol Hill.

Extreme skier Chris Davenport, Olympic snowboarding silver medalist Gretchen Bleiler and big-mountain ripper Jeremy Jones will be in the nation’s capital tonight with U.S. Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet and U.S. Rep. Jared Polis to discuss their firsthand accounts of climate change. Then on Thursday, the athletes will deliver a letter to Congress asking lawmakers to chill out on their assault against the
Environmental Protection Agency and its ability to continue to regulate greenhouse gases.

“As a winter sports community, we’re starting to see the effects of climate change already. Keeping these regulations in place is one of the last, and most effective chances we have to protect our lifestyles, our jobs and the economic vitality of our mountain communities,” the snow riders’ letter states.

Unless curtailed, carbon dioxide pollution is likely to cause a steep decline in snow and trigger significant economic losses to the $66 billion-a-year snow sports industry, they will tell Congress.

The trip is the second in as many years for Jones, who founded Protect Our Winters — a nonprofit organization dedicated to reversing the global warming crisis by uniting the winter sports community. Auden Schendler, vice president of sustainability for the Aspen Skiing Company, and Antonia Herzog, a climate and clean air specialist for the Natural Resources Defense Council, will be along for the ride.

More and more, winter sports athletes are speaking out about climate change and how they need the planet to stay cold and snowy enough to protect their livelihoods. Jones is said to have even forsaken helicopters and chairlifts when he goes snowboarding to demonstrate his commitment to the planet.

Earlier this summer, the U.S. Geological Survey released a study that suggests snowpack declines in the Rocky Mountains over the last 30 years are unusual compared to the past few centuries. Warming is projected to worsen in the 21st Century, foreshadowing a battle royal over water supplies.

“With a few exceptions (the mid-14th and early 15th centuries), the snowpack reconstructions show that the northern Rocky Mountains experience large snowpacks when the southern Rockies experience meager ones, and vice versa. Since the 1980s, however, there were simultaneous declines along the entire length of the Rocky Mountains, and unusually severe declines in the north,” the USGS eported.

Although this year’s La Niña unleashed plenty of powder in the northern Rockies, and left the southern Rockies thirsty, the “gains are only a small blip on a century-long snowpack decline,” the USGS said.

Researchers estimate that between 30-60 percent of snowpack declines in the late 20th century are likely due to greenhouse gas emissions. The rest is attributed to “natural decadal variability in the ocean and atmosphere, which is making springtime temperatures that much warmer,” the USGS said.

When it comes to legislation designed to undermine the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority over pollutants, there are quite a few bills that Davenport, Bleiler and Jones aren’t too stoked about.

One of them is H.R. 910, which would amend the Clean Air Act to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency “from promulgating any regulation concerning, taking action relating to, or taking into consideration the emission of a greenhouse gas to address climate change, and for other purposes.”

The House passed the bill in April with support from Colorado’s four Republican congressmen: Mike Coffman, Cory Gardner, Doug Lamborn and Scott Tipton. The state’s other Reps. Diana DeGette, Ed Perlmutter and Polis, all Democrats, voted against H.R. 910. The bill heads to the Senate floor this fall.

State House Minority Leader and current candidate for Scott Tipton’s seat in Congress Sal Pace held a press call on the issue last week and followed that up with a written statement:

“2.5 million Coloradans saved $1.7 billion in income taxes due to President Obama’s payroll tax holiday, and now all of a sudden Washington Republicans don’t know whether or not to support this measure again for 2012.” said Representative Pace. “I wish I could say that I’m shocked or surprised, but this is just typical Washington politics at its worst, out-of-touch, tone-deaf, and ignorant of the interests of the middle class. Extending the payroll tax holiday is a no-brainer, and I hope that Scott Tipton calls on Speaker Boehner when he’s here… to extend this important tax cut for the middle class.”

While Republicans opposed closing any tax loopholes that affect the wealthy during the recent debt ceiling negotiations and many Republican Presidential candidates have signed a pledge to “oppose any and all tax increases,” the payroll tax holiday has provided relief to 160 million middle-class families. Whether Presidential candidates stick to their pledge, and whether Republican leaders in Washington fight as hard for middle-class families as they fought for corporate jet owners, remains to be seen.

Pace is not alone in his insistence that now is the wrong time to raise the payroll tax, which is paid by almost everyone with a job, even low wage workers who often do not pay federal income tax. Colorado Democratic Pary Chair Rick Palacio also issued a statement opposing the tax increase.

“If Speaker Boehner or Congressman Tipton fought half as hard to prevent a middle class tax increase as they did to protect tax loopholes for oil companies and corporate jets, family budgets would be much safer,” said Palacio. “Instead, Republican leadership is doling out rewards to Congressman Tipton for being a loyal Tea Party foot soldier. He has marched in lockstep with Tea Party demands to end Medicare and protect tax breaks for millionaires and well-connected. But jobs and the needs of middle-class families receive no attention from the Tea Party, Republican leadership, or Congressman Tipton.”

Tipton did not return a call seeking comment. Rep. Polis’s office issued a brief statement: “Congressman Polis believes that extending the payroll tax cut makes sense for our economy and for families who are struggling to make ends meet.”

Tomorrow: Talk like a pirate day.

Polis, who built on his family’s Boulder-based greeting card and publishing business and expanded into wildly successful Internet service companies, represents Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District.

Roll Call used this formula to calculate overall worth: “To determine the richest lawmakers, Roll Call adds up the minimum value of total assets reported by each Member on their annual financial disclosures and subtracts the minimum liabilities. Percent change refers to the change since last year’s disclosure forms.”
Polis’s worth dropped 16.7 percent from last year’s $67.94 million mark.

Democrats account for 7 of the top 10 on Roll Call’s list, but Republican Reps. Michael McCaul, Texas ($294.21 million), and Darrell Issa, California ($220.4 million), top the list by a wide margin over No. 3 Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., at $193.07 million and No. 4 Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., ($81.63 million).

Colorado Republican Attorney General John Suthers appeared to take a mild swipe at Polis on Wednesday night in Vail, the tony ski resort where the congressman’s family owns property.

During a debate on the legalization of marijuana (Polis is for, Suthers is against), the AG said: “Almost without exception, the people on these panels advocating the legalization of drugs have either been academics, paid affiliates of public policy institutes, editorialists or law enforcement officers or politicians in ski resorts and areas of great affluence.”

Polis replied that he has had real-world experience with drug abuse, although he added he’s never smoked marijuana and rarely drinks.

The No. 7 lawmaker on the list – Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. ($55.07 million) – also has a tenuous Colorado and Vail connection. His son Josh is a Vail realtor and ski instructor who is occasionally mentioned for various local and statewide political offices.

“The subcommittee’s recommendations and its acknowledgement that changes need to be made are certainly a step in the right direction,” said U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder. “However, until legal shortcomings are fixed and voluntary recommendations become actual requirements, communities will remain without real assurance that their air, water and health are adequately protected.”

The Secretary of Energy Advisory Board Shale Gas Production Subcommittee released its report Thursday (pdf), calling for mandatory disclosure of the chemicals injected deep into natural gas wells along with water and sand to fracture rock formations and free up more gas. Critics say the process can lead to groundwater contamination while industry officials maintain it’s a safe process in which the chemicals often must remain secret for proprietary reasons.

The advisory panel also urged industry to move toward best environmental practices and to improve other aspects of drilling operations that have been proven to sometimes cause groundwater contamination.

“I support their call to develop best practices for casing and cementing jobs in fracking operations,” U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, said. “Last year’s BP spill in the Gulf has been largely attributed to faulty casing and cementing, and, as I have repeatedly warned, the consequences of a similar tragedy in an onshore well could be even more catastrophic.”

Colorado regulators and industry representatives have consistently told the Colorado Independent that faulty cement jobs of gas wells and leaks from pipelines and holding ponds are more of a threat to groundwater than fracking itself, making chemical disclosure somewhat of a red herring.

Polis, who also has sponsored legislation aimed at better air-quality regulation of natural gas drilling, said he’s glad the panel report examined other aspects of the drilling process associated with fracking but warned federal regulators should not ignore the potential pollution impacts of the process itself.

“The subcommittee did the right thing in undertaking a broad evaluation of problems like toxic air pollution and faulty well casings, often not considered ‘fracking,’ by the industry,” Polis said. “However, the subcommittee shouldn’t be dismissive of water contamination directly attributed to fracking itself, with an EPA study currently underway, and recent news of just such a case.”

Polis was referring to an old West Virginia case in which EPA regulators found that fracking itself caused contamination of a drinking water well. Industry has long maintained that fracking itself occurs too far below groundwater sources to cause direct contamination.

Overall, DeGette said she was pleased that the panel recommended many of the same things contained in her Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act, which she wrote and has been trying to get passed for several years. Polis is a co-author.

DeGette was particularly encouraged by the panel’s recommendation to end the use of diesel fuel in fracking, which she has targeted as potentially one of the most damaging constituents in fracking formulas. She’s seeking a better definition of diesel fuel from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“Over the past several months, my committee has revealed extensive evidence of the use of diesel fuel in fracking projects across the nation,” DeGette said. “This report’s recommendation to cease use of diesel at all is a welcome development as we strive to make the fracking process safer.”

Dan Whitten, vice president for strategic communications for America’s Natural Gas Alliance, said he was happy to see the panel recommend ongoing use of voluntary chemical disclosure websites and independent review of state fracking regulations – a process Colorado is currently undergoing.

“While we will continue to study the details of the report, we are particularly pleased with the recommendation to bolster the role of the multi-stakeholder group STRONGER and the Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC) to work within the state regulatory framework,” Whitten said.

“The report also reinforces ANGA’s prior commitment to disclosure of hydraulic fracturing fluids through the state-based GWPC registry, FracFocus.org. ANGA member companies are committed to the safe and responsible development of our nation’s clean and abundant natural gas supplies.”

And the lone environmental representative on the panel, Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp, defended its balance. A group of scientists earlier in the weekquestioned the panel makeup, charging it was weighted too heavily toward industry interests.

“At a time when so much of the debate in Washington is characterized by discord and paralysis, it finds common ground and offers a clear consensus. The public’s right to clean water and clean air cannot be compromised,” Krupp said.

“The subcommittee’s recommendations won’t solve every problem overnight. But if implemented, they would make real progress toward developing this abundant energy source in ways that safeguard public health and the environment. Rigorous, well-designed standards and improved transparency and disclosure can help ensure that shale gas is developed responsibly now and in the future.”

Tipton is reportedly holding up $24 million in Federal Transit Administration funding for the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority’s Veloci-RFTA project because he wants to trim $15,000 for wifi on the bus system. Colorado Democratic Sens. Mark Udall, Michael Bennet and Rep. Jared Polis (CD2) recently fired off a letter to the FTA requesting release of the funds in time for the short construction season in the mountains, and Tipton declined to sign on.

A nonpartisan nonprofit called Taxpayers for Common Sense was scheduled to hold a press conference this morning in downtown Grand Junction – a Republican stronghold and epicenter of energy production in Tipton’s Western Slope district – to “call on Representative Tipton to end subsidies to big oil companies.”

The group will launch a newspaper ad campaign and tout its new report (pdf), “Subsidy Gusher: Taxpayers stuck with massive subsidies while oil and gas profits soar,” which shows the top oil and gas companies reaping more than $16 billion in tax breaks and subsidies over the next five years.

“In a time of jaw-dropping deficits, taxpayers are being forced to line the pockets of Big Oil while they rake in massive profits,” said Steve Ellis, Vice President of Taxpayers for Common Sense. “Oil and gas companies should pay their fair share.”

Oil and gas industry officials claim the tax breaks are legitimate business deductions enjoyed by every business in America, but few of those companies are reaping the massive profits oil and gas companies are pulling in with prices topping $4 a gallon in many parts of the country.

The U.S. Senate Tuesday rejected the Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act of 2011, which would have ended the subsidies and tax breaks. Both Bennet and Udall voted for the act, which passed by a simple majority but did not get the 60 votes necessary to survive a filibuster.

Asked to comment on the Taxpayers for Common Sense campaign targeting Tipton and to provide his position on attempts to end the subsidies and tax breaks, a spokesman did not respond. Instead, the Colorado Independent received this statement from Tyler Q. Houlton, regional press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee:

“These misleading ads were bought and paid for by Washington special interests with no ties to Colorado, but with many ties to liberal elites. Hard-working Colorado families have suffered from skyrocketing gas prices due to the refusal of President Obama and Congressional Democrats to put forth an energy plan that reduces our dependence on foreign oil, expands domestic energy production, and creates and keeps jobs here in America.”

U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton

The nonprofit Checks and Balances Project claims more than $21 billion in taxpayer dollars would have stopped flowing to big oil companies over the next decade had the Senate passed the measure. The group also cites polling showing nearly three-quarters of Americans favor ending the subsidies given that the top five oil and gas companies made a combined $32 billion in profits in the first quarter of this year alone.

Tipton continues to hammer on the need for increased domestic production, especially in his district.

“Families and business owners are hurting because of the skyrocketing gas prices that are hampering job creation and threatening economic recovery,” Tipton recently told a gathering of Club 20 members in Washington. The lobbying organization represents business interests on Colorado’s Western Slope. “We must revisit the excessive regulations that have stifled energy production in our country, put an end to the Obama Administration’s defacto drilling moratoriums, and ensure multiple use of our public lands.”

However, conservation groups and the U.S. Interior Department say oil and gas companies are under-utilizing leases that have already been granted for drilling on public lands in the United States.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a former Colorado senator, testified Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (pdf) that the department is working to better facilitate the development of oil and gas on both the Outer Continental Shelf and on the nation’s public lands.

“The administration is committed to promoting safe and responsible domestic oil and gas production as part of a broad energy strategy that will protect consumers and reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” Salazar said. “Rising gas prices are putting an added strain on American families, and while there are no quick fixes to the problem, there are steps that we can take to secure America’s energy future.”

Similar suits have been filed in all 50 states and against the federal government.

In conjunction with the legal actions, youth marches are being held all over the world this week, including more than 60 in the United States, culminating with Denver’s march, Saturday, May 14.

The march will begin at noon at Cuernavaca Park (20th and Platte streets, near REI) and proceed 2 miles before ending at Civic Center Park with speakers, music and other entertainment. Organizers says they expect the combined marches to be the largest-ever mobilization of youth against climate change.

Speakers will include the actress Daryl Hannah, Congressman Jared Polis and possibly Governor John Hickenlooper. Entertainment will be provided by Flobots lead singer Johnny 5, possibly accompanied by other members of the band.

10-year-old organizer Xiuhtezcatl Roske-Martinez said he expects between 5000 and 10,000 people to take part in the Denver event. Asked how he was attracting such top-flight entertainment and so many marchers, he said, “We have connections.”

Indeed, the group counts Willie Nelson, Ted Turner and Robert Redford among its supporters.

“This is something new – no climate litigation in the past has ever gone back to the first principal that the government must protect the public trust,” said Ashley Wilmes, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “The large body of litigation brought under environmental statutes is too narrow for the crisis at hand. Science, not politics, defines the fiduciary obligation that trustees must fulfill – it’s the most common sense, fundamental legal footing for the protection of our planet.”

Xiuhtezcatl Roske-Martinez, a 10-year-old leader with the Colorado-based Earth Guardian group, is one of the plaintiffs. “Our future is in jeopardy because of the environmental and climate crisis. Our Earth won’t even be worth inheriting because of the decisions that the leaders of our country are making,” said Roske-Martinez. “We are in a planetary crisis, and it’s time for them to wake up and help us fight for our future and the future of their own children.”

He told the Colorado Independent, “We hope that by doing this, the government will realize we are in big trouble and will do something to protect the atmosphere.”

A press release said the legal actions of the groups rely on the long established legal principle of the Public Trust Doctrine that requires the government to protect and maintain certain shared resources fundamental for human health and survival.

“The public trust law in our country and around the world says that common resources like water and air are held in trust by the government for the people and for future generations,” said Julia Olson, Our Children’s Trust executive director. “Lawyers around the nation are providing legal assistance to young people to help them protect their future, since the government has abdicated that responsibility.”

The goal of the legal and administrative actions is to force reductions in carbon dioxide emissions and implementation of reforestation programs that will counter the negative impacts of climate change. The youth plaintiffs and petitioners are receiving legal support from Our Children’s Trust, an organization dedicated to protecting the Earth for current and future generations.

In Colorado, the group says some of the expected economic, health and environmental impacts of climate change include reduced summer water flows, pine beetle destroyed forests, more massive wildfires, a shortened ski season, frequent heat waves, increased illness from insect-born diseases, loss of endangered species, and diminished water supplies.

“Young people will be affected most by climate change and by our government’s inaction. We can’t vote, and we don’t have money to compete with lobbyists,” said Alec Loorz, the 16-year-old founder of iMatter. “We do, however, have the moral authority and the legal right to insist that our future be protected.”

Our Children’s Trust is a nonprofit focused on protecting earth’s natural systems for current and future generations.

More information on the march can be found here.