Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, wants to defund Colorado’s work on the Clean Power Plan. (File photo by Joey Bunch/The Denver Post)
For the second day in a row, Republican lawmakers attempted and failed to defund efforts to advance the Clean Power Plan in Colorado.
The shots are aimed at Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who pledged to continue working on the regulations to cut carbon dioxide emission from power plants despite a U.S. Supreme Court order to halt implementation until legal challenges are finished.
The latest came Tuesday when the Senate considered a supplemental budget bill for the Department of Public Health and Environment. Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, proposed a $200 million cut from department’s budget based on estimates from the agency about how much it will spend on the Clean Power Plan efforts.
“We shouldn’t be wasting taxpayer dollars trying to implement this,” he said.
Sonnenberg called the effort part of the legislature’s responsibility as a check on the governor’s power and drew support from Sen. Tim Neville, a Littleton Republican who is running for U.S. Senate.
“Folks we have a problem in co we have a federal government that is out of control, and we have a state government that is (contributing to) that lack of control,” he said.
The effort died on a voice vote with a number of Republicans opposed.
A day earlier, state Rep. Bob Rankin, R-Carbondale, tried a similar move in the Joint Budget Committee, on Monday when he sought to cut $212,000 from the agency’s fiscal year 2016-2017 budget that would eliminate 2.4 full-time equivalent positions in the executive director’s office.
Rankin said his Western Slope district is “terrified of this” and expressed frustration that the Hickenlooper administration did not give him more information about the work that is ongoing.
“This is a motion I feel very important to limit the amount of fear that western Colorado feels because of our proceeding in this direction,” he said.
His remarks sparked a sharp political debate, as fellow budget writer Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, voiced an ardent defense of the Clean Power Plan rules.
“I’m not afraid of clean air. I want clean air,” Steadman said. He added, “Clean Power is our future and dirty power is our past.”
“Just because we don’t like the Clean Power Plan, I don’t know why we have to be subtracting money from the department because they did work on it,” he added. “Clean air is their job.”
The motion to cut the money and positions from next year’s budget failed on a party line, 3-3 vote.
