The office of the state architect and the department of transportation are each required to establish policies regarding the global warming potential for specific categories of eligible materials used to construct certain public projects.The office of the state architect is required to establish a maximum acceptable global warming potential for each category of eligible material used in certain public projects under its purview. The act specifies which building materials are eligible materials. The office of the state architect is required to base the maximum acceptable global warming potential on the industry average of global warming potential emissions for that material and to express it as a number that states the maximum acceptable global warming potential for each category of eligible material.The department of transportation is required to develop policies to determine, track, and record greenhouse gas emissions for each category of eligible materials used in certain public projects under its purview in a manner consistent with criteria in an environmental product declaration.The office of the state architect and the department of transportation are both required to strive to achieve continuous reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in construction materials over time for the projects under their purview.For solicitations for certain public projects under the purview of the office of the state architect or the department of transportation issued after certain dates, the contractor that is awarded the contract is required to submit a current environmental product declaration for each eligible material proposed to be used in the public project.A contractor that is awarded a contract for certain public projects is prohibited from installing any eligible material on the project until the contractor submits an environmental product declaration for that material. If an environmental product declaration is not available for an eligible material, the contractor shall notify the relevant agency of government and install an alternative eligible material with an environmental product declaration. However, if a product meeting the policy requirements for a category of eligible materials is not reasonably priced or is not available to the contractor on a reasonable basis, the relevant agency of government may waive the requirement that the contractor submit an environmental product declaration for that eligible material before installing it.The office of the state architect and the department of transportation are required to annually report to the general assembly regarding the implementation of the act.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
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The act declares that, due to recent dramatic increases in both the extraction and transportation of natural gas and the construction of new homes and businesses in close proximity to these activities, as well as the environmental risks posed by methane leakage, it is appropriate to strengthen and streamline Colorado's laws governing gas pipeline safety.In furtherance of strengthening and streamlining those laws, the act updates and clarifies the duty of the public utilities commission (PUC) to collaborate with the United States department of transportation (DOT) on pipeline safety issues by:Formally accepting responsibility to enforce DOT pipeline safety rules; and Adopting rules at the state level as needed to comply with federal requirements. The PUC's rules may be more stringent than required by federal standards in specified areas. In particular, the PUC is directed to assemble maps of all pipelines within its jurisdiction, increase the frequency of inspections, and employ advanced leak detection technology. Additionally, the act amends existing penalty provisions for pipeline safety violations by:Increasing the penalty cap from $100,000 per violation to $200,000, and increasing the maximum aggregate total for a series of violations from $1 million to $2 million; Allowing the PUC to recover court costs if it must sue to recover any penalty assessed against a violator; and Requiring any compromise of a penalty to be based on objective metrics and factors, including the severity of the violation, the extent to which the violator has remedied the conditions that led to the violation, and the amount the violator agrees to spend on approved measures to reduce future risk. Any such compromise may not reduce the amount payable as a penalty below $5,000 per violation. The act appropriates $423,448 from the general fund to the department of regulatory agencies for use by the public utilities commission to implement the act, with $53,170 reappropriated to the department of law for legal services provided to the commission.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act updates the methods used to determine the cost-effectiveness of demand-side management (DSM) programs of public utilities selling natural gas at retail, including requiring that the calculation of future benefits reflects the avoided costs to ratepayers resulting from reduced consumption of natural gas. The act specifies that the calculation must be based on reliable estimates and published scientific data, including an increase in the social cost of carbon dioxide from $46 to $68 per short ton, and must include methane emissions using a social cost of methane of not less than $1,756 per short ton. In addition, the act adds savings targets and budget control mechanisms to the approval process for gas DSM programs, paralleling the existing process that applies to electric DSM programs. Section 5 of the act specifies labor standards that apply to all necessary plumbing, mechanical, and electrical work performed in connection with DSM projects for which a utility customer is eligible for a rebate from the utility. Under these standards, the utility may assign its own employees to do the work, but if a contractor is to be hired for a project in a commercial or industrial building or multifamily residential structure, the contractor must be chosen from a list of qualified contractors maintained by the Colorado department of labor and employment. To be eligible for inclusion on the list, a contractor must participate in specified apprenticeship programs. In addition, for smaller residential projects, the utility must condition customer rebates on the customer's use of licensed plumbing and electrical contractors.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Section 1 of the act defines a "gas distribution utility" (GDU) as a gas public utility with more than 90,000 retail customers. The bill requires each GDU to file a clean heat plan (plan) with the public utilities commission (PUC). A plan must demonstrate how the GDU will use clean heat resources to meet clean heat targets (targets) established by the act. The targets are a 4% reduction below 2015 greenhouse gas (GHG) emission levels by 2025 and 22% below 2015 GHG emission levels by 2030.The PUC will initiate a rule-making proceeding by October 1, 2021, to update demand-side management rules. The PUC will establish a cost cap for each GDU's compliance with its plan. The cost cap is 2.5% of annual gas bills for all of a GDU's full-service customers. The PUC is directed to approve a plan if the PUC finds that doing so is in the public interest.A municipal GDU must file a plan with the air quality control commission (AQCC) that demonstrates a 4% GHG emission reduction by 2025 and a 22% GHG emission reduction by 2030, both as compared with 2015 levels. Small GDUs may file a plan, which is subject to the cost cap and must contain its own targets.Section 2 requires the AQCC to initiate a rule-making proceeding by September 1, 2022, to establish protocols for recovered methane that utilities must use in forecasting their emission reductions.Section 3 directs the oil and gas conservation commission (commission) to conduct a study to evaluate the resources that would be needed to ensure the safe and effective regulation of injection wells used for sequestration of GHG.Section 4 makes the following appropriations:$92,482 and 1.0 FTE is appropriated from the public utilities commission fixed utility fund to the department of regulatory agencies for use by the PUC; $199,111 and 1.6 FTE is appropriated from the general fund to the department of public health and environment; From reappropriated funds received from the department of public health and environment, $37,000 is appropriated to the office of the governor for use by the office of information technology and $21,268 and 0.1 FTE is appropriated to the department of law; and $49,362 and 0.5 FTE is appropriated from the oil and gas conservation and environmental response fund to the department of natural resources for use by the commission.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act directs the state treasurer to make an immediate, one-time transfer of $3 million from the general fund to the agriculture value-added cash fund to augment the department of agriculture's ongoing advancing Colorado's renewable energy and energy efficiency (ACRE 3 ) program. At least $150,000 of this money must be allocated to research, guidance, technical assistance, feasibility studies, and projects related to agrivoltaics. "Agrivoltaics" is defined as solar energy generation facilities located on land that is also used for agricultural production.The act appropriates the $3 million from the agriculture value-added cash fund to the department of agriculture for use by the commissioner's office to make grants to implement the ACRE 3 program.The act also appropriates $2 million from the general fund to the department of agriculture for use by the conservation services division for the purpose of administering voluntary soil health programs. Of this amount, the department is directed to expend at least $1 million in grants to conservation districts, and all of the money appropriated to the conservation services division must be expended by December 31, 2022.The act requires the department of agriculture to periodically report on its expenditures to the office of state planning and budgeting and the general assembly.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act directs the state treasurer to make an immediate, one-time transfer of $40 million from the general fund to the energy fund administered by the Colorado energy office (CEO). The CEO may use the money for its ongoing programs plus the following enumerated purposes:Making grants to the Colorado Clean Energy Fund and the Colorado new energy improvement district totaling up to $30 million and $3 million, respectively; Increasing the amounts available through residential energy upgrade loans by up to $2 million; and Providing up to $5 million in additional funding to the charge ahead Colorado program administered by the CEO. The act requires the CEO to devote at least 75% of the transferred money to the specified purposes by July 1, 2022, and at least 85% by July 1, 2023, and to periodically report on its expenditures to the office of state planning and budgeting and the general assembly. Although money in the energy fund is continuously appropriated to the CEO, the money transferred by the act is scheduled to revert to the general fund on June 30, 2025, if not used, expended, or obligated by then.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Section 1 of the act authorizes the allocation of up to $250,000 per year of the money that the public utilities commission (commission) receives from the public utilities commission fixed utility fund for contracts with outside consultants and experts.Section 2 requires an intervenor in a proceeding before the commission to disclose, and the commission to publish on its website, any corporate affiliation, receipt of funding, or other financial relationship that exists or, within the prior 2 years, existed between that intervenor and the regulated utility in the matter.Section 3 directs the commission to adopt rules to require the commission, when considering any matter before the commission, to improve equity for, minimize impacts on, and prioritize benefits to disproportionately impacted communities.Under current law, the annual fee collected from each regulated public utility to support the fixed utility fund and the telecommunications utility fund is capped at 0.25% of the public utility's gross instrastate utility operating revenue for the preceding calendar year; except that the annual fee collected from a public utility that is a telephone corporation is capped at 0.20% of the telephone corporation's gross intrastate utility operating revenue for the preceding calendar year. Section 4 raises these caps to 0.45% and 0.40%, respectively.Section 5 requires the commission, when considering electric utilities' plans for acquisition of generation facilities, to consider the economic opportunities that such acquisitions would provide for workforce transition and community assistance plans and the benefits for low-income customers and disproportionately impacted communities.Section 6 requires the commission to promulgate rules requiring qualifying retail utilities subject to the renewable energy standard to retire renewable energy credits in a manner that benefits cities, counties, and businesses in the state, enables customers to account for the environmental benefits of the renewable energy, and is consistent with timely attainment of the state's clean energy and climate goals. Section 6 also directs that utilities plan their expenditures on renewable energy and retail distributed generation so as to address historical shortfalls in benefits to low-income customers and disproportionately impacted communities before reaching the 2% statutory cap on such expenditures, with at least 40% of new expenditures allocated to this purpose between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2028.With respect to the retirement of any electric generating facility, section 7 requires an investor-owned electric utility to submit, and the commission to consider, 2 alternative net present value of revenue requirement projections, one based on using Colorado energy impact bonds and one based on not using Colorado energy impact bonds.Section 8 requires the commission, in approving a resource plan, to include the social cost of carbon dioxide with regard to a portfolio's net present value of revenue requirements.Section 9 expands the time for the commission to issue a decision on an application that is not accompanied by prefiled testimony and exhibits from 210 days to 250 days after the commission has deemed the application complete.Section 10 broadens the purposes for which a utility may seek permission to issue Colorado energy impact bonds to include not only the retirement of electric generating facilities but also other programs or projects approved by the commission, including programs or projects to mitigate the effects of extreme weather, wildfires, climate change, or other hazards, but not to include the utility's own liability for wildfire or other damages.Sections 11 and 12 make adjustments to appropriations in related acts, and section 13 makes an appropriation for the purposes of the act to draw from the public utilities commission fixed utility fund rather than from the general fund. The total amount appropriated from the fixed utility fund is $971,839, and the total reduction in general fund expenditures is $471,849.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The current statutory functions of the division of housing (division) within the department of local affairs include conducting research into new approaches to housing throughout the state. The act expands the list of research subjects to include:Transit-oriented development that includes increased housing density near employment, education, and town centers; and Advanced energy performance standards that minimize the total building operational costs during the affordability period. The act expands the list of existing functions of the division to include collaborating with other state agencies to develop incentives that support:Local development near transit corridors; Increased housing density development within employment, education, and town centers; and Energy performance standards that minimize total building operational costs during the affordability period. The division is required to collaborate with other state agencies in connection with the disposition of state-owned assets to be used for low- and moderate-income housing, and maintain the confidentiality of all names, addresses, and personal identifying information of applicants, recipients, and former recipients of housing assistance. The division is permitted to publish or provide aggregate or de-identified data concerning applicants, recipients, and former recipients of housing assistance to third parties and other governmental entities, and to enter into data-sharing agreements authorizing the transfer of such information subject to certain restrictions. Outdated statutory functions of the division are eliminated.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
So long as it is not prohibited under federal law, the act permits adoptive parents who are parties to an adoption assistance agreement (agreement) to pay for services or items from a provider that is not enrolled in the medical assistance program. The services or items would otherwise be reimbursable under the medical assistance program pursuant to the terms of the agreement.The adoptive parents must determine if the special needs of the child or youth require items or services from the provider and must enter into a written agreement with the provider in which the adoptive parents agree to bear the cost of the items or services. The adoptive parents shall not seek reimbursement from the adoption assistance program or the medical assistance program after such items and services have been provided and paid for pursuant to the written agreement. Further, a county department of human or social services is not required to cover the cost of the items or services as part of the circumstances of the family or the anticipated needs of the eligible child or youth during subsidy negotiations; however, the act does not preclude consideration of any other family circumstances or anticipated needs for purposes of negotiating adoption assistance.The act requires the department of health care policy and financing to seek any federal authorization necessary pursuant to the medical assistance program to implement the policy.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The responsibilities of the statewide internet portal authority (SIPA) include developing the officially recognized statewide internet portal, entering into a contract with a statewide internet portal integrator for the development, support, maintenance, and enhancement of the equipment and systems used for the statewide internet portal, and providing appropriate administration and oversight of the statewide internet portal integrator. Current law specifies that SIPA may not enter into a contract with a statewide portal integrator unless the statewide portal integrator was chosen by the authority pursuant to a request for proposals.The act retains the requirement for a competitive solicitation for the contract with the statewide portal integrator, but authorizes competitive solicitation methods other than a request for proposals, including the invitation to negotiate.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)