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Colorado regulators seeking steep increases in permitting fees for air pollutants
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State, The Sum & Substance

Colorado regulators seeking steep increases in permitting fees for air pollutants

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado regulators want to raise fees by as much as 67% on air-pollutant emissions and the permits that are required for them — a price hike that industry leaders hope will result in faster permitting. The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission voted last month to set an April rulemaking hearing to consider the fee increases and new rules around the reporting of emissions. If approved, four separate fee hikes — meant to cover the costs of permitting, monitoring and enforcement — would go into place between June 2025 and early 2026. These increases will be debated as part of a trio of hearings in the new year focused on increasing regulations around air toxic contaminants, as prescribed in a 2022 law. The AQCC will identify five air toxins...
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There will be an enormous amount to watch in 75th state legislative session
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State, The Sum & Substance

There will be an enormous amount to watch in 75th state legislative session

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance In terms of resets, Colorado’s November legislative election results were negligible compared to what happened nationally. Republicans flipped three districts in the 65-member state House but still face a 21-seat disadvantage. Democrats’ 23-12 Senate margin is unchanged. Yet, with the 75th General Assembly scheduled to open Wednesday, everyone from business groups to labor leaders and from environmental activists to construction-defect-reform advocates are approaching this 120-day session with a new fervor. Some are reacting to the shifting makeup of party bases nationally, others to Colorado’s downward spiral in economic-competitiveness rankings. The common theme, though, is an urgency for change from all parts of the political...
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Several notable changes highlight new makeup of legislative committees
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State, The Sum & Substance

Several notable changes highlight new makeup of legislative committees

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado House and Senate leaders have announced the makeup of committees in preparation for Wednesday’s commencement of the 2025 legislative session, making some key panels more Republican and others more Democratic due in part to election results. Republicans picked up three seats in the House in November to end Democrats’ supermajority in that chamber but remain at a significant disadvantage, as Dems hold a 43-22 margin there. Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats each picked up and lost one seat in the Senate, leaving the Democrats holding a 23-12 in that chamber. In the House, Republicans will hold more committee seats, as House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, grew four committees — Business Affairs & Labor, Education, ...
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Colorado to consider state rules on massive federal 340B drug-pricing program
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State, The Sum & Substance

Colorado to consider state rules on massive federal 340B drug-pricing program

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Many employers know little about the $66 billion 340B federal drug-pricing program and its impact on them. But that likely will change in 2025, when a schism between hospitals and drug makers over the rapid growth of the program will take center stage at the Legislature. The Colorado Hospital Association is working with a group of lawmakers to introduce a bill early in the session that would prohibit drug manufacturers from limiting the use of the discount program to certain pharmacies. Eight states have passed similar laws and about a dozen others are expected to consider them next year, making it arguably the most divisive health-care debate in America today. Created in 1992, the 340B program requires pharmaceutical companies participatin...
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Commission approves ‘extremely aggressive’ emissions cuts for midstream oil & gas sector
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State, The Sum & Substance

Commission approves ‘extremely aggressive’ emissions cuts for midstream oil & gas sector

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado air-quality regulators on Friday approved the state’s first emissions-reduction rules for the midstream sector of the oil-and-gas industry — rules that officials acknowledged will be expensive to comply with but said are necessary to curb pollution. During a two-day hearing, energy companies warned that the 20.5% reduction in emissions versus 2015 levels come at too high a price — an estimated $86.3 million per year in sector-wide compliance costs that would rise if the sector experienced significant growth. Meanwhile, environmental groups argued that the rules fell short of achieving the emissions cuts called for in the state’s Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap and don’t guarantee substantial help for disproportion...
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Potential gubernatorial candidates suggest new approaches to transportation
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State, The Sum & Substance

Potential gubernatorial candidates suggest new approaches to transportation

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Two of Colorado’s leading potential gubernatorial candidates suggested Wednesday that the state should focus more attention on maintaining and upgrading highway infrastructure, signaling a potential shift could be coming in transportation policy. Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser and Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, who are both rumored to be eying runs to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Jared Polis in 2026, spoke at a Move Colorado event on what’s next for transportation in the state. Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse sent a video to the event because Congress remains in session, while Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a fourth rumored candidate, had to miss the event because of a pressing issue, organizers said. ...
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Proposed state budget could cut $110 million from already pothole-laden highways
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State, The Sum & Substance

Proposed state budget could cut $110 million from already pothole-laden highways

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado’s ability to build and fix the highways that are key to transporting goods and people could take a $110 million hit in the next fiscal year under budget-balancing proposals being offered by Gov. Jared Polis. The two-tiered reductions — a permanent cut of $65 million per year and a short-term cut of $49 million in other funds — are part of $638 million in expenditure cuts and revenue boosts Polis has suggested to deal with rising Medicaid costs and falling inflation. And while officials acknowledge that such spending rollbacks must happen somewhere in the budget, both legislators and Colorado Transportation Commission members warn these cuts could be particularly deleterious for transportation safety. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE SUM...
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Air Quality Commission will hold hearings under new procedural rules
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State, The Sum & Substance

Air Quality Commission will hold hearings under new procedural rules

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance In an effort to create more public participation in rulemaking and to improve transparency in the process, the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission voted Friday to overhaul its procedural rules for the first time since 1998. The new rules will extend from three months to four months the average time around most rulemakings, will restructure the way that parties to such hearings file motions and will attempt to define the scope of rulemakings more clearly from the start. They will become applicable in August, meaning that business and environmental groups that interact frequently with the AQCC will see the first changes by February or March in preparation for hearings later in the year. While technical in nature, the changes are significa...
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Polis proposes conversion of Pinnacol in controversial measure to balance budget
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State, The Sum & Substance

Polis proposes conversion of Pinnacol in controversial measure to balance budget

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Gov. Jared Polis’ pitch to convert Pinnacol Assurance into an independent company is being driven not just by money it could generate for the state budget but by the belief that failing to loosen the company’s operational restrictions could jeopardize its sustainability. The Democratic governor sat for an interrogation before the powerful Joint Budget Committee on Wednesday about his plans to address a nearly $1 billion budget shortfall, including $638 million in expense cuts and revenue additions he has proposed. Among the most prominent and controversial of those suggestions is a proposal to allow the state-chartered workers’ compensation insurer of last resort to act as a private company, which could add $100 million to next year’s budget a...
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By regaining seat held by party-flipper Priola, GOP appears to have staved off Dems’ supermajority in Senate
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State, The Sum & Substance

By regaining seat held by party-flipper Priola, GOP appears to have staved off Dems’ supermajority in Senate

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado Senate Democrats appear unlikely to capture a supermajority in that chamber, even as House Democrats are on track to maintain that veto-proof status in theirs, leaving the Legislature with a kind of status quo following the 2024 election. Several key races in each chamber remain too close to call, but in most cases those races have shown little change in results as more ballots have been counted. Some of the biggest pockets of untabulated tallies now remain in El Paso County, where both a state Senate and a state House race are on the line, and in Weld County, home to a key House race. But as of mid-afternoon Wednesday, nearly 24 hours after polls closed, Democrats appear to have retained a 23-12 margin in the Senate, leaving ...
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