As Wildfires Burn, Colorado Faces Fiscal Barriers to Climate Action
By Pegah Jalali
Coloradans are no strangers to wildfires, but this year’s fire season has come with quickness and ferocity not seen in years. A recent analysis of state wildfire history found more acreage burned in the past three weeks than in a 20-year period between 1960 and 1980. With forecasts calling for more hot, dry air in the next few weeks, it’s clear that firefighters from across the state and the country have their work cut out for them.
The drought creating the conditions for such large and destructive fires has been linked directly to climate change. That makes regulations designed to curb climate-warming emissions passed by Colorado lawmakers last year even more urgent and important.
Despite the urgent need felt by communities across Colorado to transition to a low-carbon economy in an equitable way, retrain fossil fuel workers, establish tighter regulations on pollution, and provide incentives for renewable energy investments, Colorado’s constitutional fiscal policy constraints are making incentives for such a transition much more difficult.
While many Colorado voters list climate change as a top issue, many are unaware bad policies baked into the state constitution are creating barriers to Colorado’s goals on climate change. More needs to be done to educate voters on the role tax and budget policies play in climate solutions, and the ways Colorado’s unique constitutional constraints like TABOR make it much more difficult to achieve what strong majorities of Coloradans agree is an important priority.
Last week, state officials from the Colorado Energy Office, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) took part in a virtual public comment session on the Colorado Greenhouse Gas Pollution Roadmap. More than 200 members of the public participated.
The “Roadmap” is a list of actions that will achieve emission-reduction targets set by the legislature in HB19-1261. That bill established the goal for Colorado to get 100% of our energy from renewable sources by 2040. These goals are projected to decrease emissions to 50% below 2005 levels by 2030 and 90% below 2005 levels by 2050. Some of the most important carbon reduction plans in the Roadmap include energy efficiency and conservation (e.g., building codes, per capita reductions on the number of miles traveled by vehicles); electrification of buildings, transportation, and industry; low-carbon electricity generation (biofuels, solar, and wind energy); and non-energy emissions reductions (non-combustion).
The listening session highlighted the ways climate change affects Colorado in addition to wildfires, including reduced snowpack and warmer streams, drier soil and thirsty crops, poorer air quality, and more severe and frequent floods. Colorado officials are also incorporating a climate equity framework into their work, acknowledging the adverse effects of climate change disproportionately affect people of color, indigenous people, rural communities, and low-income residents. This comes after CDPHE announced this month they are officially declaring racism a public health crisis.
During the public comments section, community members discussed many of the ways climate change is affecting their well-being. The audience held shared concerns on the ways air pollution and excessive heat affects our health (e.g. respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, low birth weight), the economic consequences on industries such as recreation and agriculture, and mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. Many community members reiterated the ways climate change disproportionately affects families who earn low incomes and communities of color.
As firefighters continue to work around the clock to put out the fires currently burning in our state, health officials are still working to stop the spread of COVID-19. Though the pandemic briefly paused some of the harmful pollution driving climate change, it’s not going to be nearly enough to get Colorado to where we need to be.
Drastic action will be needed to get our state, our country, and our planet back on track. We can’t afford to let bad fiscal policy prevent us from doing what’s needed to protect our climate, our communities, and our way of life.
Elliot Goldbaum contributed to this blog.
