3 mayors back CO2 reduction
Plan sets goal to cut emissions 37 percent by 2020
Jerd Smith, Rocky Mountain News
Published October 11, 2007 at midnight
Three Front Range mayors endorsed a carbon dioxide reduction plan Wednesday that would give Coloradans more opportunities to recycle, require large utilities to increase their use of "clean energy" and require that new cars and trucks meet stricter emission standards.
The plan would reduce CO2 emissions 37 percent by 2020, from a projected 147 million metric tons to 93 million. The so-called greenhouse gases are widely blamed for global warming.
"This effort is bipartisan and it is balanced," said Fort Collins Mayor Doug Hutchinson, who endorsed the proposal along with Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Lakewood Mayor Steve Burkholder.
The proposal, sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, was crafted by a statewide blue-ribbon citizens panel that included environmentalists, electric utility officials, mining groups and academics.
It recommends that the state take 70 steps to reduce emissions, including:
• Expanding recycling and composting programs to reduce by 75 percent the amount of solid waste going to landfills.
• Adopting strict CO2 emission-reducing standards for cars, a move that would boost new car prices by about $900 but save $1.88 billion in reduced fuel costs, according to the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization. Similar plans are under way in California and 13 other states.
• Changing electricity rate structures so that prices rise as use does.
• Requiring large, investor- owned utilities to derive more energy from clean sources, such as wind and solar, increasing the minium to 30 percent by 2020, up from 20 percent now.
The plan has caused concern among some, who fear that it will be expensive to implement and could eliminate jobs in some sectors, such as coal mining.
What's next
• Gov. Bill Ritter will review the proposal and may use it in developing a statewide climate action plan.
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