ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Our Colorado way of life includes spending time outside and not having to worry about clean air and safe water. A healthy environment is the basis of our existence on earth today and a legacy we owe to our children and their children in years to come. In particular we must continue to play a leading role in reducing climate change pollution and developing new, cleaner, less polluting technologies.

Below are bills I’ve sponsored and supported to try to keep it that way.

Decarbonization Tax Credits To Save Money & Reduce Pollution (HB23-1272) – For nearly 20 years Colorado has worked to promote clean energy technologies, and recent changes in federal law (such as the Inflation Reduction Act) have also made big investments in new technologies to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.  I sponsored this bill to make Colorado a national leader in using targeted tax credits for individuals and businesses to save money, save energy, and reduce pollution.  The bill provides tax credits for electric vehicles & bikes, installation of heat pumps, geothermal electricity development, pollution reduction in industrial facilities, and construction of sustainable aviation fuel production facilities. Tax incentives in the bill are expected to average around $65 million each year. This historic legislation builds upon federal initiatives, improves Colorado’s air quality, and is critical in helping the state meet its climate goals.  Status: signed into law.

Clean Energy Plans To Reduce Climate Change Pollution (SB23-198) - A few years ago, the state legislature passed legislation requiring that our state's largest utilities to document how they’ll reduce greenhouse gas pollution emissions 80% by 2030. To build on prior work, I sponsored this bill to make sure Colorado hits our 2030 target.  This bill will further clarify procedural and substantive requirements for submitting Clean Energy Plans to increase transparency and promote regulatory certainty for utilities and other interested parties.  Status: signed into law.

Property Rights Protections for Mineral Interest Owners (SB23-201) – Decades-old Colorado law allows oil and gas companies to “force-pool” the property rights of people who own the right to underground oil and gas in ways that owners may not agree with.  I sponsored this bill to better protect the rights of oil and gas property owners.  The bill would require oil and gas operators to better respect the property rights and financial interests of owners who do not consent to being “pooled”.  It would also prevent oil and gas interests owned by school districts or local governments from being “force-pooled.”  Status:  defeated due to lobbying.

Cleaning up “Orphan Wells” from Oil & Gas Drilling (SB22-198) – Colorado is one of the top states for production of oil and gas, but when an oil or gas operating company goes bankrupt, it may not be able to fulfill its responsibilities to clean up its well sites. That means the cost falls on the taxpayers, or worse, well sites aren’t cleaned up at all, posing environmental and health risks. I sponsored this bill to make sure the oil and gas industry, not taxpayers, takes care of this cleanup work. Companies will pay a modest fee per well to create a “mitigation fund” to address orphan wells. This will allow thousands of existing orphan wells to be cleaned up while providing funds for future needs. Well cleanup will help create jobs as well. STATUS – signed into law.

Incentives for Forest Health, Wild Fire Mitigation and Timber Industries (HB22-1166) – Wildfire is a growing threat in Colorado as in other western states. I sponsored this bill to create tailored, limited tax incentives for companies trying to expand operations to undertake fire mitigation and related activities in our state, with a requirement to buy equipment made in Colorado, if any is available. However, this bill did not become law for budgetary reasons.

Environmental Justice & Tackling Climate Change (HB21-1266) – Everyone benefits from wide availability of energy and consumer products in our society, but historically, the costs associated with those benefits have not been born evenly. In particular, communities of color and low income neighborhoods have often found themselves exposed to higher than average levels of pollution. I sponsored this bill to require better state engagement with environmental justice communities – communities that are disproportionately impacted by pollution. This bill also builds on a 2019 bill to reduce greenhouse gas pollution by creating specific, numeric pollution reduction requirements for key sectors of the economy. STATUS: signed into law.

Energy Efficiency Options for New Residential Construction (HB20-1155) – Energy efficient, low carbon options like solar PV, solar hot water, and heat pumps are increasingly available and affordable for new homes, but is more difficult and expensive to retrofit these options after a home is built.  I sponsored this bill so that builders will offer energy efficiency options at the time of purchase, giving buyers the option to save money and energy over the lifetime of owning a home.  Buyers can decline anything they don’t want, and builders can continue to employ contractors of their choosing.  STATUS:  signed into law.

Fairness in Charges Paid by Rural Electric Associations (HB20-1225) – REAs (a.k.a. rural electric cooperatives) provide power to hundreds of thousands of Coloradans (including in Arapahoe County) and must do so at the lowest rates consistent with reliable power supply.  Sometimes however other coops from which REAs obtain their power at wholesale impose high or at least questionable costs.  I sponsored this bill to affirm that the Colorado Public Utilities Commission may hear complaints about these costs to protect ratepayers.  STATUS:  signed into law.

Optional electric vehicle charging in new residential construction (HB18-1107) – This bill asked home builders to offer pre-wiring suitable for electric vehicle charging to buyers of new single family dwellings.  I sponsored this bill because it costs a few hundred dollars to get the wiring in place at the time of construction, compared to potentially thousands of dollars later.  With big changes coming to our vehicle fleet in the next several years, this bill aimed to save home buyers money. STATUS: killed on a party-line vote in GOP state senate.

I’ve also supported conservation legislation to:

• Strengthen greenhouse gas pollution reduction targets to a 100% reduction by 2050, with interim targets along the way.  This bill also offers tax credits to reduce the cost of replacing noisy, polluting, gasoline-powered lawn equipment with quieter electric equipment.  Also, this bill requires utilities to connect residential solar customers more quickly or face fines for non-compliance (SB23-016 – signed into law);

• Speed up review & approval of permitting for residential solar installations by investing in technology to automate review processes (HB23-1234 – signed into law);

• Conserve water in oil & gas operations.  Oil and gas exploration uses more than 20 million gallons of water per well, on average.  This bill will conserve our scarce water resources by collecting significant data on oil & gas water usage; requiring use of recycled / reused water; and tracking the cumulative impacts of water usage in the oil & gas sector. (HB23-1242 – signed into law);

• Make electric vehicle charging more available to residents of multi-unit housing by adopting standardized building codes and prohibiting unreasonable restrictions on tenants’ ability to install charging equipment (HB23-1233 – signed into law);

• Continue free public transit during summer ozone season so that Coloradans can choose to get around without having to drive in traffic and pay for gas, while reducing air pollution at the same time (HB23-1101 – signed into law);

• Require better disclosure of chemicals used in oil & gas operations (HB22-1348 – signed into law);

• Reduce climate change pollution attributable to buildings and save people money on energy bills (HB22-1362 – signed into law);

• Test water in schools and child care centers for lead – which can be dangerous in very, very small concentrations – and dedicate funds to eliminating sources of lead (HB22-1358 – signed into law);

• Restrict the sale of consumer products like carpets, food packaging, and children’s clothing treated with dangerous “PFAS” chemicals (HB22-1345 – signed into law);

• Better protect waterways from pollution and require more state outreach to communities near polluted waterways (HB22-1322 – signed into law);

• Improve Colorado’s low recycling rates through “extended producer responsibility” to reduce what goes into landfills and foster markets for useful recycled materials (HB22-1355 – signed into law);

• Incentive replacement of water-intensive turf grass with more “water-wise” landscaping (HB22-1151 – signed into law);

• Better protect Coloradans from release of toxic chemicals into our air, because 30+ year-old federal law is not protecting Coloradans’ health sufficiently (HB21-1244 – signed into law);

• Require better data collection & community notification concerning toxic air pollutants (HB21-1189 – signed into law);

• Modernize the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (“PUC”) and require the PUC to take a more active role in reducing climate change pollution through renewable energy generation (SB21-261 – signed into law); updating transmission infrastructure (SB21-072 – signed into law); making more efficient use of gas (HB21-1238 – signed into law); and increasing transition from fossil-energy sources to electrical energy sources where possible (SB21-246 – signed into law);

• Invest in local renewable energy projects (HB21-1253 – signed into law); and in job training to work in the renewable energy sector (HB21-1149 – signed into law);

• Increase research & monitoring of sources of air pollution (SB20-204 – signed into law);

• Limit “PFAS” chemicals which are increasingly being detected around Colorado, including near Buckley Space Force Base (HB20-1119 – signed into law);

• Increase fines for air & water quality violations so that pollution is not just a “cost of doing business” (HB20-1143 – signed into law);

• Require companies that use toxic air pollutants to notify the nearby community when there is a release (HB20-1265 – signed into law);

• Create a climate action plan to reduce pollution that causes climate change (HB19-1261 – signed into law);

• Collect better data on climate change emissions (SB19- 096 – signed into law);

• Grant more local control over oil and gas operations while prioritizing community health and safety in state permitting (SB19-181 – signed into law);

• Expand community solar gardens to generate clean energy and create jobs that can’t be outsourced (HB19-1003 – signed into law); and

• Fund wildfire mitigation in forest-urban interface areas (HB19-1006 – signed into law).