AB 319, the Safer Baby Products bill, would eliminate two
dangerous types of chemicals found in baby products.
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Amendment 37 marked the first opportunity for the people of a state to directly vote on the issue of clean energy, and the message sent by Colorado’s voters to the rest of the country was loud and clear. Who was involved in making this happen, and what was Environment Colorado’s role?
For the last 10 years, proposals for new wind and solar had been defeated by the utility companies and the mining industry. Four years ago, Environment Colorado’s community organizers recognized that it would take a significant shift in the political dynamic to pass a renewable energy standard in Colorado.
“We won because we developed eyeopening research, and because we used that new information to successfully reach out to important new allies,” said Matt Baker, executive director of Environment Colorado. Foremost among these new allies were representatives of Colorado’s rural and agricultural communities.
Environment Colorado studied the potential environmental and economic impacts of passing a renewable energy standard in the state, and ultimately released a series of informational reports and brochures. Among these were “Energy: Powering Rural Economic Development” and “The Impact of a Renewable Energy Standard on Retail Electric Rates in Colorado.”
“When clean energy is just seen as an ‘environmental issue,’ it is often marginalized and rejected by people who do not consider themselves environmentalists,” noted Stephanie Bonin, energy advocate for Environment Colorado.
“Due to our outreach, farmers and ranchers who can earn up to $6,000 per year per turbine see it in their interest to promote renewable energy. The ski industry sees renewable energy as a means to mitigate the global warming problem that threatens Colorado’s $10 billion a year recreational industry. Sheet metal workers, building trade associations, and steel workers all see the economic potential for renewable energy. All of this added up to a diverse and robust coalition supporting renewable energy,” added Bonin.
One of the most important steps Environment Colorado took was to commit significant time and resources to increasing rural Colorado’s support for clean energy.
We ultimately won the support of the Colorado Farm Bureau after organizing chapters on the eastern plains in areas with the best wind potential. That helped bring in the Livestock Association, Wheat Growers, and other advocates for rural interests. We also won endorsements from more than 15 rural counties and numerous economic development councils after making presentations about the economic benefits of wind.
When it came time for the initiative campaign, the active support of groups such as the Colorado Farm Bureau and the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union was critical to Amendment 37’s success. In addition, Speaker of the House Lola Spradley (R- Beulah), who served as campaign co-chair after recognizing the rural economic development potential of renewables, was an eloquent and highly credible rural advocate for clean energy.
In addition to agriculture, during the legislative process we won endorsements from over 150 businesses, including Holcim Cement (which stands to benefit by the opportunity to pour concrete for the foundations of turbines), Aspen Ski Company, many mom-and-pop businesses in the legislative districts we were targeting, and a handful of utilities.
Although many of the utility companies left the coalition when we moved from the Legislature to the initiative process, our work in those first three years helped us to have the strongest possible team and to avoid pitfalls during the initiative campaign.
Another one of the factors that made A37 viable is that the economics of renewables have radically changed in the past decade. The cost of tapping into renewable sources of energy, wind power in particular, has continued to decline. In a head to head price comparison, wind power is now cheaper than new coal or natural gas power plants. On the flip side, natural gas prices have spiked and driven up utility bills.
As a result, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission ordered Xcel Energy to purchase power from a wind farm to be constructed in Colorado; that order resulted in the 162MW Colorado Green wind farm, the fifth-largest in the country. Colorado Green now generates some of the cheapest electricity in the state, and will soon be joined by additional projects spurred by Amendment 37.
This combination of research, outreach, organizing, and improved economics paid off in the effort to win Amendment 37. Dozens of organizations supported the measure, and over 1000 volunteers helped gather 114,000 petition signatures, put up 15,000 yard signs, and generated over 200 news stories leading up to November 2nd.
In the end, the campaign to bring clean energy to Colorado was won by the people of Colorado—exactly as we believe it should be. One final indication of the quality of the work is that Amendment 37 won first place from the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center for the “hottest new trend,” and our logo and yard signs garnered national awards as well.
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