Colo. joins effort to fight global warming

Daniel J. Chacón, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 25, 2006 at midnight

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Colorado is joining a growing number of states and cities that have taken it upon themselves to fight global warming locally.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and others on Thursday kicked off efforts to develop a statewide plan to reduce emissions of pollutants that contribute to global warming.

The initiative puts Colorado in step with dozens of state and local governments across the country - from small towns such as Aspen to the entire state of California - that are tackling concerns about climate change on their own, in many cases because they complain that the federal government hasn't shown leadership on the issue.

The Colorado Climate Project will try to reduce the state's contributions and vulnerability to climate change, said Stephen Saunders, president of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization.

In 2000, based on carbon dioxide emissions, which are responsible for about 80 percent of all so-called greenhouse gas emissions, Colorado was the 39th largest polluter in the world if U.S. states were included in a comparison to countries.

"We have a lot at stake, and what we do here matters," Saunders said.

The plan would not only protect the environment and leave a legacy for future generations but open new economic opportunities, said Lakewood Mayor Steve Burkholder, one of six project directors.

"Unless we start looking at this and looking at this in a positive manner, we're just whistling in the wind because these are issues that are going to impact us in the long-term," he said.

Tom Peterson, executive director of the Center for Climate Strategies, said that several factors are influencing recent efforts to fight global warming.

"There is a tremendous amount of interest in energy efficiency and conservation as a way to save energy and save money," he said. "Similarly, there is a tremendous interest in developing renewable and alternative forms of energy that are homegrown and not imported because they diversify energy supplies and provide jobs at home."

Hickenlooper, who was trained as a geologist, focused on the environmental implications.

"The thing that I say again and again is, even if there's only a 2 percent chance that 95 percent of the top climate scientists in the world are right, that this is a dire situation, we would be potentially the first generation in history to leave the next generation a problem for which there is no solution," he said.

Hickenlooper is also among the six project directors who will appoint a blue-ribbon panel in coming weeks that will come up with a proposed action plan. The effort is expected to take a year. The proposal will then be presented to Colorado decision-makers, including the next governor.

The Colorado project is modeled after other existing or unfinished plans of other states, including Arizona, New Mexico and Montana. While the others have been initiated by governments, Colorado's is the first effort to come from both the public and private sector.

"With those we already engaged in this process - Democrats and Republicans, public sector and private sector, Front Range and Western Slope - we have started a process that represents the entire state of Colorado," Gail Klapper, director of the Colorado Forum and another project director, said Thursday during a morning news conference.

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