POLITIGAB: Floating energy ideas

The free-market, grass-roots group Americans for Prosperity is staging a four-day, seven-stop hot-air balloon tour of the state to promote market-based solutions to energy policies.
The balloon tour will highlight the need for policies that would lower gas and energy prices by increasing American supplies and making domestic production less expensive.
Even as energy costs remain at record-high levels, the group said in a press release many lawmakers continue to oppose common-sense solutions at the urging of global warming "extremists" like Al Gore.
The group stops in Colorado Springs at 6 p.m. Thursday in Memorial Park.
It will be in Pueblo at 8:30 a.m. Thursday near the Langoni Sports Complex at West 24th St. and High St.
For information, www.CostofHotAir.org.
The group supports expanding oil exploration and production to the Arctic coastal plain and the Outer Continental Shelf, as well as tapping into the potential of shale oil in places like Colorado.
Praising Schultheis
The Colorado chapter of Americans for Prosperity recognized Sen. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, for signing the group's "No Climate Tax Pledge."
That means Schultheis pledges to "oppose legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in state or federal revenue."
Debate in the making
A debate between Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn and his Democratic challenger Hal Bidlack is being planned by the League of Women Voters and the Colorado Springs World Affairs Council.
The tentative date is Oct. 1. Bidlack has accepted, but Lamborn is still mulling the invitation.
Organizers won't discuss details until both candidates commit.
Lamborn has challenged Bidlack to debate, and Bidlack has responded by calling for seven debates -- one in each outlying county and two in El Paso County.