Colorado.gov

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter.

Last Thursday, the University of Colorado, Boulder, was one of more than 1,000 colleges, universities, high schools and other educational institutions around the U.S. to participate in Focus the Nation’s national teach-in day.

Despite morning transit hassles caused by very icy roads after the mini-blizzard of the night before, I was able to make it over to the campus to check out a couple of CU’s events. (Here’s the full lineup of CU events.) I was a little late getting to Governor Bill Ritter’s kick-off talk, but I did catch most of his remarks.

As expected, Ritter touted the state’s Climate Action Plan, blue ribbon panel on transportation, his 2007 executive orders on greening state government, and (of course) the CU student government’s recent decision to shift $50,000 from wind energy credits to as-yet-unspecified carbon offset projects to be funded by the newly unveiled Colorado Carbon Fund.

The Governor’s Q&A was a bit more revealing…

One member of the audience asked Governor Ritter, “Can a cap-and-trade system (to regulate carbon emissions) come together with a carbon tax in Colorado?”

In contrast to the “green energy is a top state priority” stance of his speech, Governor Ritter quickly distanced himself from the state undertaking anything other than strictly voluntary steps toward regulating and funding carbon emissions reductions.

“Colorado chose not to join the Western Climate Initiative,” said Ritter. (The WCI features a cap-and-trade program in its proposed work plan.) “I have concerns about a regional system. I think we should be having a national conversation about this, and then the states should get behind that.”

Ritter then moved on, avoiding any discussion of a statewide carbon tax. However, even though the current administration is unlikely to consider such a funding mechanism, Xcel Energy (the state’s largest utility) apparently expects one to happen at some point.

According to this Nov. 17, 2007 Denver Post story, “Xcel Energy has factored in a cost of $20 per ton of carbon dioxide to cover a potential tax on greenhouse gases from power it supplies to Coloradans over the next eight years. …The $20-per-ton figure was included in Xcel’s electric resource plan filed with regulators last week. ”

What do you think? Should the state be considering a carbon tax, or participating in the regional cap-and-trade program? Is Ritter right to wait for a national policy? Please comment below or discuss this in our forum.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 3rd, 2008 at 6:17 pm and is filed under Follow the money, Government, Utilities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.