Two bills requiring more energy- efficient homes, shops and public buildings in Colorado advanced through the legislature Thursday in keeping with the session’s green theme.
The hallmark of the 2007 legislature is renewable energy, and with Democrats in charge of the House, Senate and governor’s office for the first time since 1962, a batch of environment- friendly bills killed in prior years – along with some new proposals – is cruising through the statehouse.
Legislative leaders are pushing bills on items as varied as open space, bark beetles and water quality.
Among them is a proposal from Sen. Ken Gordon, D-Denver, that would require state buildings under construction or being remodeled to meet the energy- efficiency standards necessary to become green buildings. Senate Bill 51 sailed through the agriculture committee 7-0 Thursday.
Another green-building bill, House Bill 1146, from Rep. Claire Levy, D- Boulder, requires cities and counties to adopt energy-efficiency standards in their building codes.
The bill, which gained initial approval on the House floor Thursday, eventually could save consumers as much as 20 percent on their energy bills, Levy said.
So-called green buildings often get some of their power from wind energy, have roofs that deflect instead of absorb heat and feature window angles that let in more natural light.
“Energy-efficiency measures are the cheapest, most environmentally friendly source of new energy for our state,” Levy said.
Carrie Doyle, director of Colorado Conservation Voters, said it’s a year of “new opportunity to really do good work to protect Colorado’s environment.”
A bill that would make it easier for counties to raise taxes to create more open space is another one making a comeback this year. Senate Bill 98 was vetoed twice by former Gov. Bill Owens.
The proposal, sponsored by Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Jefferson County, and Rep. Al White, R-Winter Park, has bipartisan support.
A proposal to strengthen state water- quality rules that has failed at the Capitol the past six years is seemingly headed for law this session. The bill from Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, would allow water-court judges to consider environmental effects before approving transfers of large amounts of water out of rivers.
Rep. Dan Gibbs, a Democrat from Silverthorne who works as a river and mountain-climbing guide in the summer, has proposed spending $1 million a year in severance taxes to clean up beetle-battered trees and protect Colorado from massive forest fires.
Under House Bill 1130, the money would go toward replanting trees and preserving old ones while cleaning up the mess left by bark-devouring beetles.
Gibbs also is sponsoring House Bill 1038, which would allocate money to clean up noxious weeds, including the ultra-thirsty tamarisk. Tamarisk suck up more than 100,000 acre-feet of water a year in Colorado, he said. An acre-foot is generally believed to be enough to serve the needs of two families of four for a year.
House Bill 1298 would impose stricter rules on oil and gas companies to protect wildlife habitat. The legislation empowers the Division of Wildlife to minimize the effect of drilling platforms on the elk breeding season and fish in nearby streams, Gibbs said.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
