[2]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 [3]). It didn't take long for the remarks to get Ritter's "dander up." In an interview with Fox 31 anchor Ron Zappolo [4], Ritter says he thinks Hickenlooper's comments were a "pretty bad mischaracterization of what happened." [5]"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 [6]). In an obituary featuring a photo slideshow, The Washington Post [7] 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."