Summary of some of the renewable energy bills passed by the Legislature this year:
— Provide funds for wind energy projects at public schools and community colleges. (House Bill 1087.)
— Increase renewable energy requirements approved by Colorado voters in 2004 to include all utilities, except municipally owned operations with fewer than 40,000 customers. (House Bill 1281.)
— Allow local governments to offer a tax credit or rebate to residential or commercial property owners who produce electricity from renewable resources. (Senate Bill 145.)
— Require the State Board of Land Commissioners to identify land under its control suitable for developing renewable energy. (House Bill 1145.)
— Require investor-owned natural gas distributors and electric utilities to adopt plans for energy efficiency, conservation, load management and demand response programs. (House Bill 1037.)
— Establish grants for research projects. (House Bill 1060.)
— Require local governments to adopt and enforce a building energy code that meets or exceeds the 2003 International Energy Conservation Code standard. (House Bill 1146.)
— Create the Colorado Clean Energy Development Authority to issue loans and grants to increase the production and consumption of clean energy resources. (House Bill 1150.)
— Require cooperative electric utilities and customer-generators to begin setting up net metering systems that allow a customers’ electricity consumption to be offset by electricity they generate from renewable resources. Critics say it doesn’t go far enough and should be revisited next year. (House Bill 1169.)
— Require the state to buy flexible-fuel vehicles by 2008. (House Bill 1228.)
— Exempt machinery used to produce electricity from renewable resources from state sales and use taxes. (House Bill 1279.)
— Create a Renewable Resource Generation Development Area Task Force to identify areas with potential to develop renewable energy projects. (Senate Bill 91.)
— Create the Clean Energy Fund from gambling revenues. (Senate Bill 246.)
