In recent remarks to the South Metro Chamber of Commerce, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, a Democrat running for governor, said he thinks it’s “crazy” to raise fees or taxes when revenues are down. He touched on new oil-and-gas regulations, saying Governor Bill Ritter’s administration sided with environmentalists in crafting them (via The Denver Post). It didn’t take long for the remarks to get Ritter’s “dander up.” In an interview with Fox 31 anchor Ron Zappolo, Ritter says he thinks Hickenlooper’s comments were a “pretty bad mischaracterization of what happened.” “Everybody was in the room, and we worked really hard for a very long time to actually bring together those people who sort of represented drilling interests, the oil-and-gas folks; and there are people out there who absolutely disagree with the way we did it,” Ritter says. “Certainly, the environmentalists were in the room, but it was a long discussion, it was, I think 6,000 different pages of testimony.” Meanwhile, one Western political family that has built its legacy on environmental stewardship is mourning the loss of a legend from a bygone generation. Former U.S. Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, uncle to Colorado U.S. Senator Mark Udall, died Saturday in New Mexico at the age of 90 of complications from a recent fall (via the New Mexico Business Weekly). In an obituary featuring a photo slideshow, The Washington Post writes, “From the Cape Cod seashore in Massachusetts to the untamed wilds of Alaska, Mr. Udall left a monumental legacy as a guardian of America’s natural beauty.”