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Colorado backs off plan to require large employers to encourage reduced car travel
Officials with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment announced on Tuesday that they would dramatically scale down a proposed rule to require large employers in the Denver metro area to incentivize their employees to reduce car travel, dealing a major blow to efforts to combat greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution. “The […]
Interior Secretary Haaland to visit BLM headquarters in Grand Junction
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will visit the Bureau of Land Management’s controversial new headquarters in Grand Junction later this week, Colorado’s two Democratic senators announced on Tuesday. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper have both called for the agency’s headquarters to remain in western Colorado, where it was relocated as part of a sweeping reorganization […]
Colorado’s unemployment rate remains flat at 6.2%
Unemployment in Colorado remained essentially flat in June, the state’s labor department said Friday, marking the 15th consecutive month that the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has kept the statewide unemployment rate above 6% — a level more than double the pre-pandemic rate, which averaged 2.7% in 2019. Colorado employers reported adding roughly 10,500 […]
Sen. Bennet, Colorado Democrats celebrate rollout of expanded child tax credit
The federal government on Thursday began sending out the first monthly payments to American families under the newly expanded child tax credit program, and the rollout is being celebrated by Colorado Democrats, including Sen. Michael Bennet, who helped lead a push by members of Congress to include the measure in a COVID-19 stimulus package passed […]
Colorado oil and gas commission delays new bonding, orphaned-well rules until 2022
Days before a key rulemaking deadline, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission voted on Wednesday to delay public hearings on a new set of financial-assurance rules from September until January. The new rules relating to financial assurance, also known as bonding, would require oil and gas operators to provide payments to the state for […]
Former Colorado GOP chair denies wrongdoing in case of $280,000 in ‘misappropriated’ Trump PAC funds
The former Colorado Republican Party chair accused of embezzling nearly $280,000 from a pro-Trump super PAC has denied wrongdoing in a new legal filing, claiming that the funds were transferred as legitimate payments for “consulting services” and that PAC officials were aware of the arrangement. The allegations against Ryan Call, who served two terms as […]
Ban on single-use plastics, polystyrene signed into law in Colorado
Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday signed into law a bill to phase out the use of plastic bags and polystyrene products at major retailers and restaurant chains across Colorado. Polis put his signature on House Bill 21-1162, dubbed the Plastic Pollution Reduction Act, in a brief ceremony at the governor’s residence, joined by bill sponsors […]
Gov. Polis signs climate bill, issues order affirming cap-and-trade opposition
Without fanfare on Friday, Gov. Jared Polis announced that he had signed into law a major climate-change bill championed by top Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups — but also signaled, yet again, his disagreement with many of those groups on how best to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. The governor’s office said in a […]
Colorado AG taps Atlanta law firm to investigate air-quality whistleblower claims
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has appointed four attorneys with a well-known Atlanta law firm to serve as special assistant attorneys general in the independent investigation into the allegations made in a whistleblower complaint filed earlier this year by several air-quality regulators at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. “After CDPHE’s Executive Director […]
Gov. Polis to serve as vice chair of Western Governors’ Association
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis will serve as vice chair of the Western Governors’ Association, the bipartisan group of chief executives from 19 states across the West, he announced at the association’s annual meeting on Wednesday. “I’m excited and humbled to serve as the Western Governors’ Association’s vice chair next year,” Polis said. “We’re looking forward […]
Biden, Western governors plan for ‘severe’ wildfire season in White House briefing
For years, American presidents have held annual meetings with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials to plan ahead for the Atlantic hurricane season. In an era when the catastrophic impacts of climate change are accelerating from coast to coast, President Joe Biden on Wednesday convened a first-of-its-kind meeting to make similar preparations for what is shaping […]
Biden to announce expanded federal wildfire efforts in meeting with Western governors
President Joe Biden will announce measures to expand the federal government’s wildfire response and mitigation efforts and increase pay for wildland firefighters during a meeting with Western governors and Cabinet officials on Wednesday, a senior administration official said. Fueled by climate change, extreme heat and drought across much of the West have led to a […]