CO Legislature Items

I’m a little behind on these. The session is over and Gov. Ritter has signed many bills into law. I will provide a synopsis of the session post in the next week, hopefully. For now, here are some things that have been sitting around.

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Sen. Gail Schwartz’s SB08-215 would direct Colorado’s Chief Information Officer to identify broadband telecommunications service areas within Colorado and develop a map of those areas. That map would later be used to plan the deployment of broadband service to unserved areas of the state. As Sen. Schwartz noted, rural access to broadband has fallen way behind access in the Front Range.

Which is interesting, because the telecom corporations were given billions of welfare dollars as long as they deployed high-speed broadband to everybody within the U.S. Hasn’t happened has it? Neither broadband nor high-speed is really all that available. The U.S. ranks 25th in the world in broadband penetration. Japan’s broadband delivers data at an average rate of 14176 kb/s, nearly twice as much as the second place country, Sweden. The U.S. doesn’t appear in the top 10. We do however, place high on the list of cost for access. We pay the most for slow service.

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Sen. Dan Gibbs HB08-1269, which would provide incentives for products that use timber killed by the mountain pine beetle infestation, passed the CO Senate unanimously. Good: wildfire is nonpartisan.

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Gov. Ritter did sign HB08-1270, which extended the types of energy efficiency items HOAs must allow in Colorado. Now, wind generators, awnings, shutters, attich fans, swamp coolers and retractable clothes lines will be permitted.

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More good energy news: HB08-1164 was sent to Gov. Ritter. This bill asks the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to consider purchasing utility-scale solar energy when it’s feasible to do so, and to take into account the future cost of carbon-based energy sources and the impace of greenhouse gases when purchasing energy. The local energy market will be opened to large scale solar energy production. To put “large” into perspective: one large scale solar plant could generate 250 new high-skilled jobs and $2 billion in private investment.

Colorado Legislature News 4/17/08

Gov. Ritter’s office on Monday released the 22 names of the Residential Solar Program Partners. From the release:

Gov. Bill Ritter today announced that 22 Solar Residential Program partners have been selected to promote the installation of residential solar electric and solar domestic hot water systems statewide. The Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) has committed $550,000 of Clean Energy Funds and created a total program budget of $1 million to advance solar investment in the state.

The 22 partners represent 12 utilities, three cities, one county, and five non-profits:

• GEO’s 11 Solar Electric Partners: Delta-Montrose Electric Association, Fort Collins Utilities, Grand Valley Rural Power Lines Inc., Highline Electric Association, Longmont Power & Communications, Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association Inc., San Luis Valley Rural Electric Cooperative Inc., San Miguel Power Association Inc., Sangre de Cristo Electric Association Inc., Southeast Colorado Power Association and United Power Inc.

GEO’s 11 Solar Domestic Hot Water Partners: City of Boulder, Colorado Springs Utilities, Four Corners Office for Resource Efficiency, Groundwork Denver, Morgan County, San Luis Valley Resource Conservation and Development, the New Community Coalition, Town of Breckenridge, Town of Center, Town of Mt. Crested Butte and United Power Inc.

I look forward to hearing more news about this exciting program.

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State Representative Kathleen Curry (D-Gunnison) took on the challenge of sponsoring a bill that will help ensure developers identify adequate water supplies before new developments are approved. The Colorado House of Representatives recently passed Curry’s House Bill 08-1141, with a bi-partisan vote of 46 to 18. The bill will provide cities, counties and others making planning decisions with verification of the adequacy of proposed water supplies before they approve new developments.

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On Tuesday, the Colorado Senate gave initial approval to SB08-71, which would reauthorize last year’s forest health measure to address the devastating infestation of bark beetles in Colorado.

State Sen. Dan Gibbs (D-Silverthorne) created the Forest Restoration Pilot Program in 2007 as part of the Colorado Forest Restoration Act. It directed the Colorado State Forest Service, the Division of Forestry and the Department of Natural Resources to solicit proposals for experimental forest restoration projects that protect water supplies. It also established a technical advisory panel to assist the state forest service in the proposal selection process.

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Also on Tuesday, the House sent a bill prohibiting Homeowners Associations (HOAs) from restricting energy efficiency measures to the Governor’s desk.

HB08-1270 encourages homeowners to invest in technologies to lower their utility bills and helps all Coloradans participate in the new energy economy. In so doing, the measure supports small businesses that produce renewable and efficiency technologies.

The bill now heads to Gov. Ritter’s desk for his signature.