Date: January 24, 2023
To: Colorado General Assembly leadership, Denver, CO 80203
Dear Speaker McCluskie, President Fenberg, and Leaders Moreno and Duran:
As the Seventy Fourth Colorado General Assembly begins, we write to congratulate you on your new leadership positions and to express our appreciation for your longstanding commitment to climate action.
Nearly four years ago, the General Assembly passed a suite of climate bills which included those focused on economy-wide requirements such as greenhouse gas emissions reporting and the development of regulations to meet statewide greenhouse gas reduction targets (HB19-1261; SB19-96), as well as those targeting sector-specific reductions to protect communities from impacts of oil and gas development (SB19-181) and to deeply decarbonize the state’s largest electric utility (SB19-236). Together, these put Colorado at the forefront of state climate action, and required reductions in greenhouse gas pollution of at least 26% by 2025, at least 50% by 2030, and at least 90% by 2050. The legislature designed these targets to align with the pace and scale of action necessary to do our part in limiting global average temperature increase to 1.5°C.1 Recognizing longstanding environmental injustices that concentrate pollution in communities of color and low-income communities, Colorado’s climate statute was also the first in the country to require implementing regulations that achieve deep reductions in climate pollution and local air pollution in disproportionately impacted communities.
Since then, Colorado has moved to curb emissions, most notably from electric power generation and oil and gas production—with further legislative action addressing emissions from natural gas use in our residential and commercial buildings. In addition, the Environmental Justice Act (HB21-1266) has made further strides to protect environmental justice communities, including by requiring robust community engagement in air rulemakings, refining the definition of Disproportionately Impacted Communities, creating an Environmental Justice Task Force and Environmental Justice Advisory Board, and strengthening air pollution monitoring.
Despite progress to date and existing requirements, recent analyses indicate the state remains off-track.
In August, the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division identified a glaring gap between the state’s projected emission reductions and its 2025 goal: statewide emissions are projected to be at least 11.4 million metric tons, or 11%, higher than state law allows in 20252—even under optimistic estimates of what current policies and regulations will deliver. If hoped-for reductions do not fully materialize, Colorado will miss its 2025 target by 14.4 MMT CO2e based on the Division’s analysis.3 This finding by the Division is supported by similar conclusions from analysis conducted by EDF and RMI.4
Moreover, current policies are not reducing emissions at the pace necessary to meet the targets established by the General Assembly. For example, according to the Division’s data, in 2021 the electric power sector emitted 35% more than the state projected in the GHG Inventory and the transportation sector emitted 32% more than the state expected, for a total of at least 16 million tons of excess climate pollution in 2021 alone.5 And statewide, natural gas sales to residential and commercial customers increased 10% between 2015 and 2021.6 While electric utilities have plans in place to reduce their emissions at least 80% by 2030, the emissions data make clear that the state remains behind the pace of emission reductions needed in the interim. With every year that Colorado fails to keep pace, the state emits excess greenhouse gases that drive up the cumulative amount of climate-warming pollution in the air—leading to more severe drought, wildfires, extreme heat, and other climate impacts that Coloradans are already facing. In addition to worsening climate damages, these excess emissions prolong localized pollution from particulates, smog-forming contaminants, and air toxics that are emitted alongside greenhouse gases.
With Colorado’s 2025 climate goal just two years away, the legislature has a critical role to play in reaffirming the imperative to meet the pollution reduction requirements already established by the General Assembly, while continuing to identify additional ways to support the transition to a clean energy economy. Moreover, federal investment creates an unprecedented opportunity for Colorado to elevate its fight against climate change. Achieving the state’s climate goals will drive historic investment, pollution reduction, and job creation in Colorado.
To do so, we encourage the General Assembly to:
- hold a hearing on the emissions gaps and opportunities to get the state on track;
- adopt additional directives, including deadlines to finalize regulations that secure the necessary reductions by 2025 and 2030;
- establish new targets to underscore that the state must be on a rapid and sustained pathway toward full decarbonization;
- codify into law a robust, statewide environmental justice strategy that protects disproportionately impacted communities.
We look forward to working with you to ensure Colorado equitably and effectively curbs pollution and secures a safer future for generations to come.
Sincerely,
Alex DeGolia, Environmental Defense Fund
Alana Miller, Natural Resources Defense Council
Stacy Tellinghuisen, Western Resource Advocates
Rebecca Curry, Earthjustice
Ramesh Bhatt, Colorado Sierra Club
Heidi Leathwood, 350 Colorado
Laurie Anderson, Moms Clean Air Force Colorado Chapter
Eric Frankowski, Western Clean Energy Campaign
Leslie Glustrom, Clean Energy Action
Morgan Brown, Defend Our Future
Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians
John Magnino, Conservation Colorado
1 C.R.S. 25-7-102(2)(c).
2 See the Division’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goals Progress Report to the AQCC (August 2022) and Western Resource Advocates analysis of the Division’s data (September 2022).
3 In total, 2.95 MMT CO2e of reductions assumed in 2025 from the oil and gas methane intensity standard, transportation planning standard, and energy intensive trade-exposed industry standard are highly uncertain. (See EDF analysis).
4 EDF’s analysis finds Colorado is projected to face a gap between 11-29 MMT CO2e in 2030. RMI’s analysis suggests the state will fall short of the mandated reductions by 14 MMT CO2e in 2030.
5 The Division reports that electricity sector emissions were 31.40 MMT CO2e in 2021, exceeding the GHG Inventory projection of 23.43 MMT CO2e for that year. In addition, the Division reports that transportation sector emissions were 33.11 MMT CO2e in 2021, exceeding the GHG Inventory projection of 24.99 MMT CO2e.
6 U.S. Energy Information Administration, Colorado Natural Gas Consumption by End Use. Release date December 30, 2022. Available at http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_cons_sum_dcu_sco_a.htm