Pirate's Cove

I do not want to hear any complaints out of Colorado Democrat peasants. You voted for the people who passed this, and, when, not if, it messes with your lives you have no one to blame but yourselves

Gov. Jared Polis signs “enormous package” of green energy and climate change bills

Colorado has new climate goals etched into state law and a slew of new tax credits and programs to help get it there.

Gov. Jared Polis signed into law Thursday a package of bills that includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 100% come 2050, a program to automate and streamline local solar energy permitting, encourage geothermal heating and cooling and a tax credit package to incentivize more electric vehicles.

“It’s sort of one enormous package that, taken together, will help to clean the air, achieve our climate targets and save Coloradans money,” Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office said.

In particular, Toor touted the new decarbonization tax credit law, HB23-1272, as “probably the single-largest investment the state of Colorado has made in climate action, clean energy, and consumer incentives.”

That bill creates some $200 million in tax incentives over the next several years to promote electric bicycle, car and truck purchases, as well as geothermal, heat pump, industrial clean energy and other initiatives.

Can’t wait to see how the heat pumps, electric bikes, and EVs work during a Colorado winter. Plus, consider that once you get out of the few big cities Colorado tends to be somewhere between small town America and pure rural. Travel in Colorado will be difficult. How many will decide to forgo visiting the state due to the high costs and difficulty getting around?

At the trio of bill-signing events, Polis and sponsoring lawmakers all cited the necessity of the new laws to combat climate change in ways big and small.

Sounds like the government is getting rather authoritarian.

The Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Measures bill, SB23-016, for example, creates a 30% point-of-sale discount for new electric lawn equipment and snowblowers, while also giving state regulators authority over a class of injection wells. The latter provision sets the stage for state involvement in carbon capture.

“It’s going to take every tool in the toolkit for us to reach our climate goals,” state Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat and sponsor on several of the climate bills, said. “We need to decarbonize every part of our economy and every part of our state.”

I’m wondering why the Denver Post failed to ask Polis and those in the general assembly who voted for this if they are driving EVs, riding electric bikes, and have installed heat pumps themselves. The 2050 date is cute: if it’s such a climate emergency then why wait 27 years? Go hardcore now.

That said, geothermal would be great, but, expect the extreme-enviros to block any projects.