Green Giant or Greenwashing? Colorado's Clean Energy Push Meets Oil Boom
As Colorado sprints towards a "carbon-neutral" future, a potential clash looms between lofty climate goals and booming oil and gas production. New laws mandate regulations for emerging clean energy industries like carbon capture and geothermal, while the state simultaneously ramps up gas output. Can Colorado balance environmental ambition with its current fossil fuel engine? This tangled web of legislation and oil rigs raises critical questions about the state's true green trajectory.
Colorado is racing to set up new rules to regulate climate-friendly energy industries, including carbon capture and geothermal projects, and hopes to be among the first states in the nation to achieve this.
The state Legislature passed a number of new laws in the spring that mandate how the commission should move forward and underscore how the department will be forced to juggle the requirements of multiple industries.
New laws, SB23-285 and SB23-016, require the commission to draft rules to regulate underground natural gas storage, carbon capture and geothermal operations, which generate electricity from the Earth’s internal heat.
Laws enacted by the General Assembly in the spring require Colorado’s energy regulator to develop a “ carbon management roadmap ” to speed decarbonization of the state’s transportation and electricity systems.
In introducing the law, legislators said giving regulators more authority was necessary to ensure Colorado remains competitive with other states courting clean tech companies.
Polis in June signed into law a measure that requires the commission to adopt rules to address the cumulative effects of fossil fuel operations.
To mitigate the effects of such activities, municipalities implemented new rules regulating surface effects of fossil fuel drilling within their borders.