Denver's mayor soft-pedals "green" plan, but doesn't back down

After Drudge highlighted Denver mayor John Hickenlooper's aggressive plan to cut the city's carbon emissions by the equivalent of a half million cars, his office (as well as the newspaper that reported the story) got an avalanche of feedback, mostly negative. Hickenlooper says he's not intimidated by the response, but he is giving mixed signals about how he's planning to move forward, according to the Rocky Mountain News:

Hickenlooper said the proposals are just ideas.

"According to most polls, 70 percent of the people in Colorado recognize there is global warming," he said.

The mayor said he would listen to public reaction before moving ahead but he aims to have a plan in place by the end of the year.

Some of the proposals in Denver's plan that might sound radical to residents are already in place in other states. California, for example, charges heavy users of electricity higher rates.

So, although these are "just ideas", he expects to have some form of these ideas in place by the end of the year, citing the fact that 70% of the scientifically literate (just kidding!) public have swallowed the AGW hypothesis, and thus likely would see the light on whatever his eventual plan is.