On May 1, candidate for governor of Colorado Jared Polis visited DU to talk to students about his environmental policy. The event was hosted by DU College Democrats and the USG Sustainability Committee and took place in Lindsey Auditorium.
At the discussion, Polis heavily focused on his plans for getting Colorado 100 percent powered by renewable energy by 2040. To accomplish this, Polis mentioned numerous initiatives that he believes can make this goal a reality.
One of these methods includes making the adoption of energy saving projects more financially appealing for the state. The first idea he mentioned was to increase a regulatory incentive for energy efficient construction and lighting. Polis also hopes to expand the state energy savings performance contract. This way, if a state building wishes to implement a solar project, they will not need to budget a separate fund to accomplish it. Instead, state buildings can pay for the solar project with the savings that it generates over the next couple of years.
Making it less expensive for the general public to integrate solar panels or other energy-saving technologies is another method Polis suggests for reaching the 2040 goal. “We also want to encourage rooftop solar by ensuring utilities give homeowners, schools and businesses a full retail rate for the energy that they put back on the grid,” he told students. Financing solar projects at a rate similar to that of a mortgage (around three to four percent) and using the net savings from their payments is another method Polis proposes to make solar affordable.
Polis also wants to easily transition those working in the fossil fuel economy into green jobs. He highlighted Pueblo, Colorado for having about 700 jobs in manufacturing wind turbines for a city of about 100,000 people. He sees Eastern Colorado as the state’s renewable energy corner which will have manufacturing, insulation and ongoing maintenance jobs.
His last point for achieving his goal involves maintaining public land and fire prevention. To accomplish this, Polis suggest creating resilience in the land by establishing varied types of agriculture in order to avoid a wipeout of areas that have had only one type of cultivation.
The second half of the hour involved a Q&A session. There, a member of the audience asked Polis why he wants to work on a state level rather than at the federal level he is in currently. In response, Polis said that Colorado must do its part and lead the way. He mentioned that the state cannot afford to wait and that “that kind of leadership is not going to come from Washington.”
“Frankly, for me to be able to run on 100 percent renewable energy by 2040 here, I’m only able to do that because counties and cities have lead the way,” Polis continues. “If I was the only one talking about this, people would think I was nuts.” He praised Pueblo, Breckenridge and Longmont for being some of the cities in Colorado that are, according to him, leading the path for Colorado to become more sustainable.
Polis’s website has further details on his environmental policy.
