Creating a perfect environment for cleantech

In four years in office, former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed 57 bills to advance the state's New Energy Economy, establishing a legislative framework to create thousands of cleantech jobs and keep energy costs low for homeowners and businesses. Today, Governor John Hickenlooper continues to advance cleantech in Colorado with supportive legislation.

Major clean energy legislation in 2011:

• HB11-1199 Limit Government Fees on Installation of Solar Energy Panel (Gardner/Bacon) - the “Fair Permitting” legislation extends existing legislation prohibiting excessive permit fees on solar installations.
• SB11-047 Bioscience & Clean Tech Reinvestment (Heath/Gerou) - the "Colorado Science and Technology Innovation  Reinvestment Act" diverts 50 percent of the future growth of income tax withholding from the cleantech and bioscience industries (using NAICS  codes) to be used as seed money for start-up companies and  inventions. SB11-047 is a "first-of-its-kind" funding mechanism for Colorado. It is expected to generate about $2 million per year for the cleantech industry.

Major clean energy legislation in 2010:

• HB10-1001 Renewable Energy Standards (Tyler & Schwartz/Whitehead) & HB07 1281, Renewable Energy Standard (Schwartz/Pommer & Witwer) - with these bills Ritter tripled Colorado’s renewable energy standard, requiring utilities to generate electricity from renewable sources. These laws are credited with attracting new companies such as Vestas and bringing thousands of new jobs to Colorado.
• HB10-1365 Clean Air-Clean Jobs Act - requires Xcel Energy, the state's largest utility, to reduce pollutants by retiring, retrofitting, or repowering coal-fired power plants and replace them with facilities fueled by natural gas and other lower- or non-emitting energy sources. This bill will cut air pollution, create jobs, and increase the use of cleaner energy sources.
• HB08-1160 Net Metering (Solano/Shaffer & Isgar) - allows homeowners to reduce their electricity bills by selling excess solar energy back to their utility company.
• SB09-051 Renewable Energy Financing Act (Carroll/Levy) - makes solar energy systems more affordable for homeowners and improves market conditions for solar energy companies. This new law is already creating hundreds of new jobs in Colorado.
• HB09-1312 Renewables for Schools (Kerr/Schwartz & Romer) - creates a loan program to help schools pay for clean energy projects and electric or hybrid buses.

Legislation helping to grow Colorado’s New Energy Economy:

(Detailed summaries available on the Colorado General Assembly website) 

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