2008 LEGISLATIVE SESSION
OVERVIEW
Solar energy, healthy rivers, and smart growth. These were the key policy priorities conservationists identified in 2008 because of the importance of these issues in addressing global warming, protecting our environment, investing in Colorado jobs, and strengthening our economy. At the close of the legislative session in May, conservation leaders were joined by business leaders at the state capitol to declare the session a win-win for the environment and the economy.
GLOBAL WARMING
If 2007 was the year Colorado got the New Energy Economy up and running, this was the year for bringing the New Energy Economy home—and to give every Coloradan a chance to participate in building our new energy future. The cornerstone of the clean energy agenda was the Go Solar package which received early support from both house leadership and the Governor. Through partnerships with solar companies, industry organizations, agricultural groups, labor unions, and local governments, a suite of bills passed that will remove barriers and create incentives for renewable energy in Colorado to move us all forward in solving global warming.
The first to pass this session, House Bill (HB) 1160, sponsored by Representative Judy Solano and Senators Brandon Shaffer and Jim Isgar, put in place statewide “net metering” policies to ensure that customers of rural electric cooperatives (REA’s) and municipal utilities (munis) receive a fair price for the clean energy they produce and send onto the grid. By creating a shorter payback period for those homeowners and businesses that invest in clean energy systems, more rural Coloradans can participate in the new energy economy.
Another big step forward in removing barriers to clean energy was HB 1350, championed by Representative Alice Madden and Senator Chris Romer. Under HB 1350 cities and counties will be able to provide low interest loans to home and business owners to cover the upfront cost of clean energy improvements so more people can afford to invest in these solutions.
The final part of the Go Solar campaign was focused on setting the stage for more large, utility scale solar power plants to be built in Colorado, helping places like the San Luis Valley and Southeastern Colorado to also take advantage of the economic development opportunities presented by the new energy economy HB 1164, sponsored by Representative Judy Solano and Senator Gail Schwartz, authorizes the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to consider specific environmental and economic benefits of large-scale solar projects as a way to meet the state’s energy needs. HB 1164 also authorized the PUC to consider the cost of global warming pollution emissions in deciding whether utilities should buy energy from coal plants, wind farms or solar power plants—allowing them to follow the lead of major businesses and utilities to effectively plan for future costs.
By giving the PUC the ability to use carbon as a value in resource planning decisions, HB 1164 represented the first time that the Colorado General Assembly took a substantive step forwards in giving regulators the tools they need to explicitly address global warming. As such, the bill generated strong ideological opposition and debate was long and fierce, especially in the House. A critical moment for this measure came in its first committee vote.
KEY COMMITTEE VOTE: House Bill 1164 – New Solar Energy Technologies
The House Transportation & Energy Committee gave HB 1164 its first approval 8-5 after 2.5 hours of debate. Numerous opposition amendments were championed by Reps. Swalm, Sonnenberg, McNulty, and Marostica. Committee Chair Buffie McFadyen worked effectively with her colleagues to thwart attempts to sabotage the bill, as well as to kill an additional amendment that would have exempted Tristate G+T from the bill’s provisions and taken Colorado even further away from a comprehensive, statewide energy policy. YES was the pro-environment vote.
YES: Borodkin, Fischer, Levy, Merrifield, Primavera, Rice, Green, McFadyen
NO: Marostica, McNulty, Vaad, Swalm, Sonnenberg
There were a host of other clean energy bills that moved forward this session as well, and conservationists also worked with Senator Shawn Mitchell and Representative Frank McNulty to pass Senate Bill (SB) 117 to equalize permitting fees for solar installation ensuring predictability and a level-playing field for the industry and the customers. With SB 147 Senator Ken Gordon and Representative Mary Hodge built upon last year’s successful effort to require state buildings to meet a high performance efficiency standard and expanded the scope to include projects done through the Division of Housing. Representative Andy Kerr and Senator Ron Tupa worked hard to pass HB 1270, ensuring that Homeowners Associations cannot bar the use of home energy saving devices. Finally, Representative Bernie Buescher and Senator Jennifer Veiga, through HB 1387, extended state assistance to low-income families for home heating and critical efficiency upgrades so they can keep their energy use, and their bills, down for the long-term.
We do have some unfinished business from this session. While we applaud the House for passing HB 1107, sponsored by Representative Claire Levy and Senator Jennifer Veiga, this legislation to create a requirement so all utilities have to work to help their customers cut their energy use was significantly weakened by an amendment from Senator Chris Romer in committee, and then ultimately was killed by Senator Dave Schultheis and Senator Abel Tapia. A Statewide Utility Efficiency Program would save consumers an estimated $600 million between 2008 and 2020, and is one of the most important ways to help Colorado meet its clean energy and global warming goals. This policy will be back as a top priority next session.
KEY COMMITTEE VOTE: House Bill 1107 – Muni-Coop REA Electric Energy Efficiency
During the Senate committee on State, Veterans, & Military Affairs an amendment by Senator Chris Romer significantly weakened the bill. YES was the pro-environment vote.
NO: Schultheis, Tapia
Excused: Cadman
This session, the conservation community was committed to giving all Coloradans the opportunity to be a part of helping build this new energy economy, and we celebrate great progress.
WATER
2008 brought some of the highest snowfalls we’ve seen in more than a decade here in Colorado. It also brought us an exciting legislative session as we worked to pass our Healthy Rivers campaign. This exciting campaign will ultimately mean more water flowing in Colorado’s rivers. In an arid state like Colorado, even our large rivers and streams can be at risk of drying up. This package of bills provides the preventative medicine needed in many areas and will aid recovery efforts on rivers and streams which are currently drying out.
Our biggest success in the Healthy Rivers campaign was the passage of HB 1280, sponsored by Representative Randy Fischer and Senator Gail Schwartz. This bill protects water right holders who choose to lease or loan water to the state and will encourage greater use of the instream flow program. Since 1973 the state has had the authority to acquire water rights for the benefit of the environment, but in more than three decades, they have only had a handful of water rights donated to this program. A diverse group of water users including farmers, ranchers, conservation groups, sportsmen, water providers, recreationists and local governments, all recognized the need to remove barriers in current laws to help protect water right holders who choose to use their water to help keep Colorado’s rivers flowing.
The Healthy Rivers campaign also included important funding components. The annual Colorado Water Conservation Board Projects Bill, HB 1346 sponsored by Representative Kathleen Curry and Senator Jim Isgar, will provide up to $1 million annually to be used to acquire water rights to keep water running in streams and rivers. Additionally SB 168, by Senator Isgar and Representative Curry, allocates $500,000 annually from the Species Conservation Trust Fund to support instream flows aimed at conserving native species that are threatened, endangered or at risk of becoming so. Finally Representative Jack Pommer and Senator Dan Gibbs introduced HB 1369, which aimed to create a tax incentive for water right holders who choose to donate their water rights to the state on a permanent basis, but unfortunately this measure did not pass.
KEY COMMITTEE VOTE: House Bill 1369 – Incentives for Donation of Water Rights
This bill died in the Senate Committee on State, Veterans and Military Affairs, by only one vote. Senator Abel Tapia joined Senators Bill Cadman and David Schultheis in voting against the bill to defeat it in committee. The bill would have created a tax incentive for water right holders who wish to permanently donate their water rights to the state to protect Colorado rivers and streams. YES was the pro-environment vote.
NO: Tapia, Cadman, Schultheis
Leadership from Governor Ritter’s administration, the Department of Natural Resources and the Colorado Water Conservation Board were key components of the passage of the Healthy Rivers campaign legislative agenda.
This session we also saw HB 1222, by Representative Frank McNulty and Senator Ted Harvey, which aimed to expand the definition of “renewable energy resources” to include pumped hydroelectricity and low-impact hydroelectricity. As originally introduced, this measure had troubling provisions that might have negatively impacted rivers and streams. Because of the complexity of ensuring that hydroelectric energy production is done in an environmentally sensitive way, the proposal was sent to an Interim Water Resources Review Committee for further study.
SMART GROWTH & TRANSPORTATION
Colorado’s population is predicted to grow at a rate of a million new people every decade for the next thirty years. The conservation community’s goal is to see this growth occur in a smart way that maximizes our financial resources, conserves our open space and natural resources, and reduces our carbon footprint.
This year the legislature considered two big issues involved in planning for growth – water supply and the link between land use planning and transportation planning. HB 1141 by Representative Kathleen Curry and Senator Bob Bacon requires developers to prove to local governments that they have an adequate water supply for subdivisions of 50 or more units before they can receive a development permit to build the subdivisions.
As the link between growth and global warming becomes clearer, creating sound growth policies becomes ever more essential. The sprawling growth patterns we have seen in Colorado and across the country over the last century have put people ever farther from where they work, shop, go to school and worship. This has caused Coloradans to drive more and more miles every year, emitting more air and global warming pollution and causing more stress on our aging roads and bridges. Colorado cannot afford to support this kind of sprawling growth anymore.
HB 1312, sponsored by Representative Claire Levy, attempted to address these problems by ensuring that land use planning and transportation planning in Colorado are done together. HB 1312’s goal was to efficiently direct Colorado’s limited transportation dollars to cost-effective projects that would reduce traffic jams and global warming pollution, rather than to wasteful projects that increase sprawl and taxpayer costs. However, Representative Levy decided to withdraw HB 1312 in committee so that she can do more outreach over the summer and come back next year with an improved bill in 2009. The good news is that this important discussion got started this session and will help us build toward a win on this issue in the 2009.
SPORTSMEN AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS –
PARTNERS FOR WILDLIFE AND HABITAT PROTECTION
Sportsmen and environmentalists both consider themselves conservationists and have long had common interests in preserving wildlife and wildlife habitat. Again this year these communities enthusiastically worked together on several pieces of legislation to promote habitat protection and wildlife preservation.
For over a year, the Division of Wildlife, the Sportsmen’s Caucus, and the Sportsmen’s Advisory Committee have been working towards legislation for better enforcement of existing off-road vehicle (OHV) regulations on federal lands. This was spawned by recognition of the extensive habitat damage and game movement caused by illegal OHV use. With the assistance of Senator Lois Tochtrop and Representative Kathleen Curry, and joined by the Colorado Off-Road Vehicle Coalition, HB 1069 was drafted to allow state officers, including Division of Wildlife officers, State Parks officers and county sheriffs to enforce OHV regulations on federal lands. All federal land management agencies are now going to a ‘closed unless posted open’ policy rather the previous ‘open unless posted closed’ policy. The new legislation allows state officers to enforce Federal OHV restrictions in accordance with this new policy. After a debilitating amendment was placed on the legislation by Representative Frank McNulty in the House Agriculture, Livestock & Natural Resources Committee, Representative Kathleen Curry carried the bill on the House floor and got that amendment removed.
HB 1137 by Representative Jerry Sonnenberg and Senator Greg Brophy would have prevented the Division of Wildlife from acquiring any more interests in land or water without disposing of a like amount. This was a bad bill as it would have negated habitat protection afforded by the Habitat Stamp bill and other wildlife habitat funding sources. Effective protests by sportsmen who provided multiple contacts to all of the members of the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee along with lobbying help from the environmental community got this bill defeated in committee.
SB 69 by Senator Jack Taylor and Representative Jerry Sonnenberg in its original form would have made it difficult or impossible to obtain convictions for some serious wildlife violations. Opposition by sportsmen, effective negotiations on their behalf by senior Division of Wildlife officials, and assistance from the environmental community got this legislation amended to where is acceptable to all parties including the district attorney’s association.
Colorado environmental organizations thank sportsmen and women for their dedication and leadership in protecting habitat and wildlife for all of us and for future generations. Fees from sportsmen’s licenses, excise taxes and habitat stamp purchase provide the funding for game management, wildlife research and endangered species conservation, and a significant part of the habitat and access acquisition in Colorado.
RESPONSIBLE MINING & OIL AND GAS DRILLING
As a national debate is underway on reform of outdated mining laws, Colorado made ground-breaking progress by addressing the threat of increased radioactive pollution from uranium mining. The need to protect important parts of our economy such as agriculture and outdoor recreation is becoming more and more important as uranium claims on public lands alone soared from 120 in 2003 to more than 11,000 in 2008.
Not wanting to put Colorado’s water, wildlife, and lands up for collateral while rolling the dice on this new uranium boom, the Western Mining Action Project, Citizens Against Resource Destruction (CARD), a grassroots group in Northern Colorado, and other conservation organizations joined to make a process called in-situ leach uranium mining – through which the ore is mined in the aquifer and then removed through a chemical process – a safer bet for our communities and water by passing strong protections for our environment.
HB 1161, the Land & Water Stewardship Bill, sponsored by a team of northern Colorado legislators led by Representatives John Kefalas and Randy Fischer and Senator Steve Johnson, addressed uranium pollution in two ways. First, it protects groundwater used in agriculture by requiring mining companies conducting in-situ leach uranium mining to clean-up after themselves and restore groundwater quality to its pre-mining condition or to state standards. Second, it protects Colorado’s public health and environment by requiring all uranium companies to have environmental protection plans as a “designated mining operation,” and therefore subject to strong environmental and public health protections. The dedication of the sponsors to this fight for their constituents was unparalleled, but they also worked diligently to address the concerns of the industry every step of the way. The expertise and involvement of the Department of Public Health and Environment, the Department of Natural Resources, and the Governor’ Policy Office was also instrumental.
A companion bill, HB 1165 was also introduced this session, sponsored by Representatives Randy Fischer, John Kefalas and Senator Brandon Shaffer, to bring more balance to mining practices in the state, and improve public involvement in decisions affecting their land and water. Unfortunately the mining industry was able to thwart the effort to bring environmental balance to the Mined Land Reclamation Board and to codify the existing authority of local governments over mining operations, and they created enough of an uproar that the House Agriculture, Livestock & Natural Resources Committee voted to kill HB 1165 despite an amendment that was offered to limit the scope of the legislation to public disclosure of all mining prospecting operations.
KEY COMMITTEE VOTE: HB 1165 – Strengthen Mining Reclamation Standards
The House committee on Agriculture, Livestock & Natural Resources voted to kill HB 1165 despite an amendment that was offered to limit the scope of the legislation to public disclosure of all mining prospecting operations. YES was the pro-environment vote.
YES: Fischer, McFadyen, Scanlan, Solano, Gallegos, Curry
NO: Gardner, Hodge, McKinley, McNulty, Looper, Rose, Sonnenberg
Not to be deterred, Senator Gail Schwartz and Representative Kathleen Curry picked up the reins and introduced SB 228 almost immediately—a bill that mirrored the amendment to HB 1165. With the involvement of the Department of Natural Resources, the mining industry and the conservation community were able to agree to a proposal that ended the veil of secrecy around prospecting operations while protecting proprietary information. This legislation has brought Colorado in line with every other western state where public disclosure is the law.
In addition to working to proactively address the coming mining boom, the General Assembly also continued their work from last session and made more progress towards balanced oil and gas drilling.
Oil and gas drilling has continued to boom across Colorado, and there has been a corresponding increase in waste production including evaporative pits. These often unlined evaporation ponds dispose of polluted water by evaporating it into the air—presenting obvious risks to ground water, air and wildlife. The rules under the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment were at least 20 years old and did not reflect advances in technology. Recent problems of leaking clay liners and air quality violations at different facilities demonstrated the need to add additional protections for air, water, nearby residents and wildlife. HB 1414, sponsored by Representative Bernie Buescher and Senator Josh Penry, directs the Solid and Hazardous Waste Commission to promulgate rules to address the environmental concerns associated with evaporative waste pits.
Conservation Leaders
A lawmaker’s voting record tells one part of the story, but factors such as leadership in committee, willingness to bring stakeholders together, and ability to block weakening amendments are all instrumental in passing strong conservation policy. In 2008 we saw leadership from both chambers, both parties and the governor’s office. Unfortunately,2008 is the last year in the legislature for many of these leaders. We wanted to recognize a few of these champions for their years of service.
House Majority Leader Alice Madden sponsored countless environmental bills in her 8 years as a state lawmaker. She championed conservation efforts as a member of the minority party in the House Agriculture Committee when such efforts were doomed before they even got started. And, as Majority Leader Rep. Madden continued to advocate for strong environmental protections and investment in Colorado’s New Energy Economy.
Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon is a lifelong champion for environmental protection. He successfully sponsored many measures over the years including policy to increase the health of our rivers, protect water quality, and spur the state to invest in green building practices.
Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff encouraged the conservation community to be better by building stronger coalitions, reaching out to our opponents and winning bipartisan support.
The conservation community also wants to acknowledge the departure from the General Assembly of two up and coming Republican conservation leaders. Representative Rob Witwer has been a leader on clean air protections and investment in renewable energy over his three years in the House. Senator Steve Ward also showed himself as a conservation leader supporting clean energy policies during his two years in the Senate.
Being an elected official is hard work. But protecting our environment requires that smart, talented people choose to serve. These lawmakers were instrumental in creating policies that will protect our natural resources and set us on a path to meet the challenge of global warming. The conservation community thanks you for your service.