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Colorado is at a turning point. Will 2019 be our time for climate action?

Written by Audrey Wheeler

We are living during a pivotal moment for the protection of Colorado’s environment. With the opening of Colorado’s legislature and Governor Jared Polis being sworn in, we will enter the legislative session following a new era of leaders who were elected on their promises to protect our air, land, water, and people.

According to a survey of Colorado voters taken just after November’s elections, the environment was a major factor for voters’ choices. When asked which policy issue was “most important” in their vote for governor, 42 percent of independents chose “energy and the environment” as one of their top two options – the most of any issue tested. In other words, it wasn’t the economy, healthcare, education, immigration, or taxes that rose to the top for Colorado voters — it was energy and environment.

Coloradans voted for pro-conservation champions to lead our state government, so now we have the opportunity to pass bold policies that will protect our future! This year holds a lot of promise for taking steps to protect our air, land, water, and people. With Governor Jared Polis at the helm — who won his race on a platform of 100 percent renewable energy — we are gearing up for strong leadership from Colorado.

In 2019, we aim to make Colorado a leader on climate action, prioritize the health and safety of communities over oil and gas, and protect our lands and waters.

Our biggest efforts for climate action will be:

  • Taking bold action to protect our climate. A recent report from the United Nations found we have 12 years to act to prevent disastrous climate change. Colorado can lead the nation toward a clean energy economy. Xcel Energy’s recent commitment to a carbon-free energy grid by 2050 is a great start, and we can do more for our climate. As our executive director, Kelly Nordini, said in a recent news story: “Carbon’s a pollutant. We need to set a limit on that pollution and say as a state how we’re going to limit that carbon pollution.”
  • Making sure health, safety, and the environment are put first when it comes to oil and gas development. The oil and gas industry has had far too much influence over political and regulatory processes in Colorado. We need to put the health and safety of our communities first and have the best safeguards in the West.
  • Protecting the public lands, rivers, and streams that make Colorado a great place to live. As our population grows, we need to make sure our public lands are preserved, our rivers keep flowing, and our wild places are accessible for everyone to enjoy.

Learn more about these goals and how we plan to reach them at Colorado Conservation Future.

With these policies, we can take our future into our own hands. We can move forward on Colorado climate action, making our state a leader for the nation on clean air and climate change, as well as with safeguards that put people ahead of oil and gas industry profits. Let’s work together to seize this opportunity to protect the state we all love.

The time to shape our future is now.

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Mirando hacia adelante y mirando hacia atrás

Cómo Colorado está listo para liderar sobre el medio ambiente.

Condujo 1.800 megavatios de energía limpia. Cortar la contaminación de los coches. Organizó miles de coloradenses para hacer frente a la administración de Trump. Ganó 53 elecciones, eligiendo más mujeres y personas de color que nunca en Colorado. Cuando hacemos una pausa y miramos hacia atrás, está claro que nuestro 2018 fue bastante agitado.

Construir un movimiento requiere muchos pequeños éxitos. Y este año, con el apoyo de nuestros muchos voluntarios, donantes y activistas dedicados, logramos mucho para proteger el medio ambiente de Colorado.

Primero, ponemosmás tiempo, dinero y esfuerzo para elegir líderes pro-conservación que nunca antes — y dio sus frutos! ¡Participamos en la elección de Jared Polis como gobernador y en la elección de mayorías a favor de la conservación en la legislatura de Colorado!
But election victories aren’t the only thing we accomplished this year.

Energia y clima

  • Ayudamos a traer más energía limpia y renovable a Colorado a través del Plan de Energía de Colorado de Xcel Energy. Esto ahorrará aproximadamente $ 213 millones para los consumidores de energía, reemplazando dos centrales eléctricas de carbón que usan energía renovable, recursos de gas natural existentes (pero no nuevos), y duplicando la cantidad de almacenamiento de batería que actualmente está bajo contrato en todo el país. Enviamos casi 10,000 comentarios públicos (un nuevo récord) a la Comisión de Servicios Públicos para hacer de este plan una realidad.
  • Trabajamos para aprobar un proyecto de ley que apoya a las comunidades rurales impactadas por la crisis económica, como una gran industria que se está yendo. El proyecto de ley «REACT» proporciona una coordinación y recursos muy necesarios para que las agencias estatales ayuden a las comunidades rurales. Lo hace designando una agencia estatal específica, el Departamento de Asuntos Locales, para coordinar la asistencia económica.

Transporte

  • Hicimos grandes movimientos para limpiar la contaminación de los autos en Colorado. En noviembre, Colorado se convirtió en el primer estado interior en aprobar los estándares de vehículos de baja emisión para automóviles y camiones, lo que reducirá la contaminación de los tubos de escape, ayudará a los residentes de Colorado a respirar más fácilmente y ahorrará dinero para las familias en la bomba. Elogiamos al gobernador Hickenlooper cuando inició el proceso con una orden ejecutiva en junio, y trajimos información de más de 7,600 coloradenses a la agencia a cargo.
  • Participamos en la aprobación de un proyecto de ley para aumentar la financiación del transporte, una necesidad que ha aumentado a medida que la población de Colorado ha crecido. Un verdadero compromiso, este proyecto de ley de financiamiento del transporte incluye fondos estatales flexibles que invierten en opciones de tránsito, bicicletas y peatones, así como en carreteras y caminos. La SB 001 proporciona fondos para todas las partes del estado para disminuir la congestión, promover la equidad y reducir la contaminación del aire.

Desierto y tierras públicas

  • Nos asociamos con el senador estadounidense Michael Bennet y el representante Jared Polis para presentar un proyecto de ley en ambas cámaras del Congreso para proteger permanentemente 96,000 acres en el Bosque Nacional White River, incluido Camp Hale como el primer Paisaje Histórico Nacional. El Continental Divide Recreation, Wilderness y Camp Hale Act protegerán la belleza natural, la recreación al aire libre, los recursos históricos y el hábitat de la vida silvestre en el bosque nacional más ocupado de la nación.
  • Apoyamos un proyecto de ley para volver a autorizar la lotería de Colorado para continuar financiando la recreación al aire libre y la conservación de la tierra. A través de este programa, Great Outdoors Colorado ha devuelto más de $ 1.1 mil millones a la gente de Colorado a través de proyectos como parques y senderos comunitarios en los 64 condados de Colorado.
  • Movilizamos a miles de coloradenses para que hablaran ante la administración de Trump, enviamos comentarios sobre los cambios propuestos a los planes del sabio urogallo, consiguieron que los funcionarios electos locales se unieran a las perforaciones cerca de las Grandes Dunas de arena y reclutamos a 103 empresas para enviar una carta al Congreso. Proteger el Fondo de Conservación de Tierras y Aguas.

Agua

  • Trabajamos con nuestros campeones legislativos para aprobar tres proyectos de ley que permiten utilizar el agua reutilizada para inodoros, cultivar cáñamo y marihuana y cultivar cultivos comestibles. El agua reutilizada es agua reciclada que ha sido tratada para que esté lo suficientemente limpia como para usarla nuevamente. Estas cuentas ahorrarán agua para Colorado
  • Ganamos un juicio para mantener fluyendo el río Dolores. Ahora hay agua que está legalmente asignada para restaurar los flujos de las corrientes de los peces y la vida silvestre que dependen de ella.

 

Comunidades

  • Conservation Colorado Education Fund y Protégete registraron 10,360 nuevos votantes en los condados de Denver y Pueblo, 75 por ciento de los cuales se identificaron como personas de color, para ayudar a aumentar la participación de los votantes en Colorado.
  • Graduamos a 44 Promotores, o individuos de comunidades latinas que se comprometieron a aprender cómo organizar y dirigir a su comunidad hacia soluciones locales y estatales a través del compromiso cívico. Esto incluyó a nuestros primeros Promotores juveniles, que son estudiantes de escuelas secundarias y universidades locales que están pasando por nuestro programa.
  • Ayudamos a derrotar la Enmienda 74, una medida de la boleta electoral apoyada por intereses corporativos de fuera del estado que querían cambiar el carácter de los vecindarios de Colorado y nuestros paisajes rurales, dándole a los desarrolladores lagunas para construir todo lo que quieran, donde quieran.

 

La lucha continua

Nuestro país está experimentando una rara convergencia de clima político, preocupación pública y capacidad para realizar cambios significativos en los próximos años, y esos cambios serán liderados por los estados. Estamos asumiendo algunas de nuestras campañas más grandes para aprobar políticas audaces que harán de Colorado un líder para la nación.

Hemos creado una visión para el futuro que sirve como un claro llamado para que nuestros líderes tengan sentido. Hemos desarrollado una visión para el futuro que sirve como un claro llamado para que nuestros líderes elaboren políticas significativas en 2019 y más allá para proteger el medio ambiente de Colorado. Incluye: políticas en 2019 y más allá para proteger el medio ambiente de Colorado. Incluye:

  • Poner un límite a la contaminación de carbono y avanzar en la innovación de energía limpia
  • Electrificando y limpiando nuestro sector del transporte.
  • Salvaguardar a las comunidades del desarrollo de petróleo y gas.
  • Mantener el agua en nuestros ríos y asegurar nuestra agua potable saludable
  • Protegiendo las tierras públicas y la vida silvestre para todos los coloradenses

Con su ayuda, podemos continuar haciendo crecer nuestro movimiento y hacer que el futuro de Colorado sea uno de los que estamos orgullosos de dejar como nuestro legado. ¡Done antes de fin de año para apoyar nuestra visión para el futuro y formar parte de la lucha!

Involucrarse

 

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Senator Cory Gardner keeps voting with Trump against our environment

Written by Audrey Wheeler

Colorado’s Senator Cory Gardner has claimed many times that he values our outdoors and environment. Unfortunately, when it comes to conservation and environmental issues, Senator Gardner has little to brag about. In fact, Gardner has voted with President Trump 92.4 percent of the time since Trump took office, both on environmental issues and everything else that’s come up in the Senate.According to the League of Conservation Voters’ 2017 National Environmental Scorecard, Sen. Gardner received a zero percent score. According to the 19 Senate votes scored, Gardner could not have been a worse ally for the environment. Let’s take a look at some of his votes.

1. For Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.

Protesters outside of Gardner’s Denver office raise the cry against Scott Pruitt.

In spite of hundreds of calls to his office, protests outside of his office, and social media campaigns, Gardner supported Scott Pruitt. Pruitt has denied man-made climate change and is known for his many lawsuits against the EPA. Now he is the head of the agency.

2. For Rick Perry to be the Secretary of Energy.

Perry’s famous slip where he forgot the Department of Energy was one of the agencies he wanted to eliminate is not even his biggest disqualifier for being Secretary of Energy. He has ignored the consensus around climate science and has many financial ties to energy companies, yet Congress — and Sen. Gardner — approved him for the position.

3. For Rex Tillerson, the CEO of Exxon Mobil, to be Secretary of State.

Tillerson led Exxon during its long-term campaign to spread lies about climate science and deceive the public. He also has deep ties to Russia and Putin, which should have disqualified him from representing our country on the international stage. Instead, Congress voted to confirm him.

4. For Ryan Zinke to be Secretary of the Interior.

At first, Zinke seemed like the least extreme member of Trump’s cabinet. However, his financial backing from the oil and gas industry makes him less than suitable to manage our public lands. His record since becoming Secretary of the Interior has been peppered with misuse of funds and efforts to undermine public land protections, like shrinking Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah.

5. To undo a rule that would have made it easier for the public to influence decisions about our public lands.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had recently made a rule to update land management processes. Both experts and the public agreed it was a much-needed step to improving management of our public lands. Senator Gardner’s vote overturned this rule and prevented the BLM from ever making a similar rule. This is an example of shutting out local voices while putting our public lands at risk.

6. His vote to repeal the stream protection rule allows coal companies to have a freer hand in dumping mining debris in streams.

This debris pollutes streams with toxic heavy metals, which can have dire health impacts on the communities nearby. It was yet another move to stand up for fossil fuel companies at the expense of our health and people.

7. To move forward with repealing a rule that protects our air from oil and gas emissions.

Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, leaks from oil and gas sites across the country, wasting taxpayer dollars and exacerbating climate change. The Bureau of Land Management’s Methane Rule established commonsense standards that require oil and gas companies to deploy readily available, cost-effective measures to reduce methane lost through venting, flaring, and leaks. While the rule itself is still in question, there’s no doubt that Sen. Gardner went against the wishes of most Coloradans and voted to repeal the rule.

9. To open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. 

This vote was snuck into the Tax Bill that Congress passed in December 2017. There was a proposed amendment to remove the piece of the Tax Bill that allowed for drilling in the Arctic Refuge — but Sen. Gardner voted against the amendment, and voted to pass the Tax Bill. Now the largest protected wilderness in the country, known to the indigenous Gwich’in people as “the sacred place where life begins,” is open to drilling.

In an increasingly blue state which Gardner won by a slim margin in 2014, he’s becoming one of the country’s least-liked politicians. Not only did Coloradans vote decisively for Hillary Clinton, but they care about the issues Gardner has attacked. The environment is a key example.

During his 2014 campaign, Gardner repeatedly claimed to be “Not That Kind Of Republican”. In order to win Colorado, he tried to separate himself from the extreme partisanship and positioning of his party. He advocated for clean energy and protecting future generations.

Cory Gardner’s 2014 campaign video was all about the environment.

“What can we do to make sure we are protecting this beautiful environment?” he asked on the campaign trail. However, Senator Gardner’s promises to be a “new kind of Republican” have proved to be empty.

On environmental issues, Gardner’s track record leaves much to be desired. Despite his efforts to portray himself as a Westerner who values public lands and protecting our future, his voting record tells the truth.

At the same time, Gardner still claims to love the environment. In February, he and Senator Bennet introduced a package of public lands bills designed to fix a couple of tiny issues with Colorado’s public lands. These bills would affect a grand total of less than 1,000 acres of public lands — out of 24 million acres in Colorado. Although Gardner says he’s “proud” to work on bills like this “that will ensure future generations of Coloradans are able to enjoy our state’s natural treasures,” these bills are a distraction from his anti-environmental onslaught.

We must continue to tell Senator Gardner that Coloradans don’t want to see him siding with Trump. Especially when it comes to our air, land, and water, which he campaigned for and claims to support, Gardner needs to vote with his constituents.

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Trump’s Dirty Energy Agenda Comes to a Colorado Forest

Written by Audrey Wheeler

A year ago, we reported on the West Elk Coal Mine, a highly contested mine in Colorado’s Gunnison National Forest. At that time, we and many other Coloradans were concerned about Arch Coal’s proposal to expand its coal mine, which would destroy 1,720 acres of forest.

Now, those concerns have become reality. Just two weeks ago, the Trump administration’s Forest Service announced that it is forging ahead with a plan to allow the company to expand the mine. If approved, this decision will cause irreparable harm on the national forest in more ways than one.

To take a step back, the West Elk coal mine is located in western Colorado, north of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It’s an extremely controversial mine for a variety of reasons, including its location inside a roadless area of a national forest, its exemption from a new moratorium on coal leasing, and the fact that it is owned by formerly bankrupt company Arch Coal. But perhaps the most disturbing issue is the air pollution that it already causes, which would increase if the mine expands.

Mount Gunnison towering over the Sunset Roadless Area. The aspen forests on the right would be damaged by the mine expansion. Photo by Ted Zukoski of Earthjustice.

The West Elk mine has already been the single largest source of methane pollution in Colorado, spewing 58,000 tons of methane into the air every year. Methane — an immensely potent greenhouse gas — has more than 80 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide, and is a major contributor to climate pollution.

Although Colorado has some of the strongest rules in the nation for methane pollution from oil and gas activity, as the Colorado Independent reports, “Unlike methane from oil and gas drilling, coal mine methane remains unregulated at both state and federal levels.” The proposed expansion to the coal mine could mean emitting enough methane to negate half of the emissions prevented by Colorado’s methane rules for oil and gas.

Plus, under Arch Coal’s plan, more than six miles of forest will be bulldozed for roads and up to 48 drilling pads will be built in the Sunset Roadless Area, which connects to the West Elk Wilderness. The area is a rolling landscape of aspen and spruce-fir forests that provide habitat for native black bear, elk, lynx, and cutthroat trout.

The actions by the Trump administration to move forward with this mine expansion are even more disturbing because of how they deal with the impacts of government projects on climate change. Previously, government environmental reviews like this had to take into account the impact of the project on climate change. Now, the Forest Service claims that calculating climate impacts is not an “appropriate tool at the project level” and is “no longer representative of governmental policy.” This comes out of a Trump executive order that disbanded the agency working group associated with it.

Hikers in the Sunset Roadless area near the West Elk mine. Photo by Ted Zukoski of Earthjustice.

The Forest Service wants to give Arch Coal access to more than 17 million tons of coal — but at what cost? The West Elk Mine already has over a decade of coal in reserve, and this decision not only ignores the economic realities that face the coal industry, but it generates even more greenhouse gas emissions, further exacerbating climate change. Coal has been central to the local economy in this area for generation, but this coal mine expansion is a bad idea for the forest and for our climate.

The negative consequences of expanding the West Elk Coal Mine and the damage it would cause to our national forest are obvious. The U.S. Forest Service is asking the public to weigh in on this problematic West Elk Coal Mine expansion. Take action today to send a message to the administration that we value our public lands too much to watch them be destroyed. Follow this link to sign a petition to the Forest Service.

This one decision could destroy aspen groves, displace native wildlife, and vent methane pollution into our air. It’s a sign of what to expect under the Trump administration in terms of our public lands — and it’s up to us to stop it.

Cover image: The West Elk Mine. Image from WildEarth Guardians flickr.

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