Hello friends!
Welcome to April. We are now more than halfway through this year’s legislative session at the Colorado Capital. With that in mind, here is a brief round up on some of the things 350 Colorado has been up to!
February 10th marked the opening of the legislative session with 350 Colorado’s Lobby Day. It was a major success with over 50 citizen lobbyists in attendance from many different backgrounds and places across the state. Volunteers met with their Representatives and Senators and got the year off to a great start by pushing our state legislators to keep the environment at the forefront of the session!
Most of our priority legislation we have been supporting have made it through their initial committee hearings and are currently awaiting approval by the appropriation committee to continue on in the legislative process. The appropriation committee analyzes the financial costs of bills to determine if the money allotted for their implementation is acceptable.
List of priority bills in appropriations:
- SB23-016: Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Measures is a bill designed to promote greenhouse gas reduction measures across the state.
- HB23-1069: Study Biochar In Plugging Oil And Gas Wells is a study bill aimed at investigating the utilization of biochar in preventing oil and gas wells from leaking emissions.
- HB23-1242: Water Conservation In Oil And Gas Operations is major bill that will require oil and gas companies to recycle water in their operations and disclose where they get their water from.
One major success with our priority bills is bill HB23-1074: Study Workforce Transition, which, if passed, will create a study regarding workforce transitions for workers in the oil and gas industry as fossil fuels are phased out. It has gone through all steps in the House and has been introduced in the Senate. At the time of this newsletter, it is due to be workshopped by the Senate Business, Labor, and Technology committee on April 6th. With luck it will be signed into law soon!
350 Colorado is also working to support a number of other environmental bills during this legislative session! Some of these are newly introduced, while others have been nearly signed into law.
- HB23-1233: Electric Vehicle And Parking Requirements is a newly introduced bill that will require the state electric board to adopt EV charging at new multi-family homes and will prevent restrictions from local governments and landlords.
- SB23-198: Clean Energy Plans is a new bill in the Senate that, if passed, will prevent utility companies from exploiting loopholes that let them avoid needing to meet greenhouse gas emission reduction targets
- HB23-1252: Thermal Energy is a new bill that will work to advance thermal energy services in Colorado.
- HB23-1234: Streamlined Solar Permitting And Inspection Grants is a bill awaiting approval by the appropriations committee to streamline solar permitting and inspection.
- HB23-1161: Environmental Standards For Appliances is also in appropriations and will expand environmental standards for appliances and fixtures in Colorado.
- SB23-178: Water-wise Landscaping In Homeowners’ Association Communities will remove certain community barriers to water-wise landscaping.
- SB23-116: Establishment Of A Wildfire Resiliency Code Board hopes to tackle one of the biggest climate-risks in Colorado by adopting codes and standards to reduce the risk of wildfires to people and property.
- HB23-1240: Sales Use Tax Exemption Wildfire Disaster Construction also deals with wildfires, except this bill exempts those who have lost their houses to wildfire from sales tax involving the purchasing of materials to rebuild their homes.
- HB23-1137: Solar Garden Net Metering Credits Stabilization will introduce measures to stabilize metering credits from the output generated by community solar gardens.
- HB23-1101: Ozone Season Transit Grant Program Flexibility is a bill that, if passed, will enhance the flexibility of public transit and planning with the goals of reducing ozone emissions.
There have also been a number of anti-environmental bills that have been defeated this session. For example, HB23-1163 was a bill that – if you can believe it – wanted to prohibit carbon dioxide from being classified as a pollutant and SB23-079 was designed to update state definitions of “clean energy” to include nuclear energy. 350 Colorado is also working on our opposition to other pieces of bad legislation that are still active. HB23-1247: Assess Advanced Energy Solutions In Rural Colorado sounds like a good bill, but it lumps many environmentally-damaging practices (like natural gas generation) in with actual solutions like wind and solar power. HB23-1080: Reliable Alternative Energy Sources is another bill that is attempting to make nuclear energy seem much cleaner and safer than it actually is – this time by promoting small modular reactors.
If you are curious about the status of these bills, learning more about them, or possibly giving testimony to speak in support of environmental legislation then you should check out 350 Colorado’s action dashboard! The action dashboard lists in-person events that you can attend, upcoming hearings and opportunities for public comments, and online actions that you can take. If you want to make progress in our state, the action dashboard is a great way to see what opportunities are coming up. Another great way to get involved is to join the legislative action committee, which meets Mondays on zoom every other week from 5-6 pm.
Keep up the good work everyone! So far, this session has been good, but there is still lots of work to do as the session nears its frantic end. Let’s make it 350 Colorado’s best one ever. If you want to take a first step right now, sign up for the legislative action committee or one of 350 Colorado’s many other committees here, and get involved today!
Trevor Slansky
He/him/his
About Trevor: Trevor is the legislative action intern at 350 Colorado for the 2023 legislative session. He is studying to enter law school for environmental law to do what he can to make a difference in his state and community. When he isn’t working, you can find him writing or training for his next big obstacle course race.