Last month, the Public Utilities Commission ordered Colorado’s natural gas utilities to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 41% over the next ten years, going well beyond what the state energy office recommended.
I was puzzled by the timing of this, wondering why utility commissioners appointed by a Democratic governor would pick that kind of fight when affordability is top of mind for Democrats right now.
The commission didn’t act on a whim. State regulators are bound by law, and the law requires Colorado to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions on a strict schedule:
§ 25-7-102 (2)(g)(I) “Accordingly, Colorado shall strive to increase renewable energy generation and eliminate statewide greenhouse gas pollution by the middle of the twenty-first century and have goals of achieving, at a minimum:” statewide GHG reductions of 26% by 2025, 50% by 2030, 65% by 2035, 75% by 2040, 90% by 2045, and 100% by 2050 (relative to 2005 levels).
To the environmental lobby, those statutory goals look like the path to salvation. To a lot of the people I know in rural Western Colorado, they look like a relentless whittling away of things they know and depend on.
Colorado’s climate law was passed by Democrats in 2019 to support the stretch goals in the Paris Accord. The U.S. was no longer party to that accord in 2019, but states concerned about climate change committed to doing their part.
The world has changed since then. So has our nation. We are now aggressively fossil-forward, using trade pressure and military force to reshape the energy landscape abroad, and executive orders to reshape it at home. The United States government is using every available lever to maximize global burning of fossil fuels. I don’t think that was anticipated by Colorado Democrats in 2019 when they passed their well-intentioned, aspirational law.
I don’t know what the energy landscape will look like next year or even next week, much less 2050. And yet, Colorado law requires us to strive for drastic emissions reductions that escalate every five years no matter what economic, technological, national, or geopolitical forces are in play.
Colorado should be committed to addressing climate change. But our statute should allow for the inevitable course corrections without having to drag the legislature back in every few years. It should be framed as something that feels achievable, and maybe even inspiring, to people all across Colorado.
We need a climate law that that’s forward thinking but lets us adapt to changing conditions. When budgets are flush, we can do more. When people are struggling as they are today, losing their health insurance, day care funding, and drinking water projects, the state should be allowed to moderate its ambition on expensive new energy policies.
We need a law that puts today’s people on an even footing with the people who will populate our state in 2050
Changing your strategy, or your statute, isn’t a failure. It’s situational awareness, part of wise governance. And in the long run, I think a values-oriented, flexible policy will prove more effective than a list of mandated reductions hanging over our heads for the next quarter century.
Here’s my suggestion. Replace the drawdown schedule in the law with something like this:
“Accordingly, Colorado shall strive to reduce statewide greenhouse gas pollution over time, pursuing feasible reductions across all sectors while advancing affordable, reliable, clean energy for all Coloradans.”
The environmental groups will still fight for Colorado to achieve the stretch goals in their plan, as they should, but there would be room for the state to consider other plans that might also lead to success, room to consider tradeoffs.
All Coloradans depend on energy and the environment, and both are under stress in a rapidly changing world. Navigating that change and balancing those priorities shouldn’t divide us into warring camps. Climate policy must become a shared problem-solving exercise, based in reality and respect, or all of us lose.
Powering Forward 
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