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Colorado Governor's Energy Office Funding Opportunities - Grant calendar for 2010 ***
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Colorado General Assembly
Public Policy
State Policy Successes 2011
CCIA works to promote the needs of Colorado's cleantech companies by proposing initiatives and advocating for a business climate that is friendly to the cleantech industry. In its second year, the CCIA and its members testified in support of numerous clean energy measures and drafted language to address the dearth of investment capital in Colorado.
Many thanks to CCIA members Chris Thompson of OPX Technologies, Joel Serface of Clean Range Ventures and Paul Nelson of Clean Range Ventures for taking their time to testify on the following bills.
House Bill 1045, carried by Rep. Kefalas and Sen. Newell, makes modifications to the Colorado Innovation Investment Tax Credit program and creates a framework for the future expansion of the program contingent on additional moneys being available to backfill lost income tax revenue. CCIA actively supported the bill.
House Bill 1083, carried by Rep. Swerdfeger and Sen. Giron, allows the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to give its fullest possible consideration, at a utility’s request, to the cost-effective implementation of new energy technologies for the generation of electricity – specifically hydroelectricity and pumped hydroelectricity. CCIA actively supported this bill.
House Bill 1160, carried by Rep. Gerou and Sen. Jahn, established a green building incentive pilot program to be administered by the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) to incentivize energy efficiency improvements to existing residences with current home energy ratings below minimum standards (and also for people who purchase highly efficient new houses). CCIA supported the bill.
House Bill 1199, carried by Rep. Gardner and Sen. Bacon, limits government fees to install solar panels. The bill limits a county from charging a permit, plan review or other fees to install an active solar electric or solar thermal device (or a system that, in aggregate, are in excess or exceed the lesser of the county's actual costs in issuing the permit) to five hundred dollars for a residential application or one thousand dollars for a nonresidential application. If the device or system produces fewer than two megawatts of direct current electricity or an equivalent-sized thermal energy system, then the county shall clearly identify all fees and taxes on an application. CCIA actively supported this bill and a number of members directly participated in the legislative process.
House Bill 1262, carried by Rep. Becker and Sen. Johnston, ensures that there are procedures for transparency in the process of bidding by electric utilities for the acquisition of new generation facilities. The bill allows bidders in a competitive electric resource bidding process access to modeling inputs and assumptions. The bill also establishes procedures regarding the designation of information that is confidential. CCIA supported the bill.
Senate Bill 47, carried by Sen. Heath and Rep. Gerou, was CCIA’s signature legislation. SB 47, the "Colorado Science and Technology Innovation Reinvestment Act," will divert 50 percent of the future growth of income tax withholding from the cleantech and bioscience industries (using NAICS codes) so that it could be used as seed money for start-up companies and inventions. SB 47 is a "first-of-its-kind" funding mechanism for Colorado. It is expected to generate about $2 million per year for the industry via the Clean Technology Discovery Evaluation Grant program, which provides matching grants to Colorado's universities for market assessments of their clean technologies; to companies commercializing university clean technologies; and to certain initiatives. As its signature legislation, CCIA actively led support with our members’ active participation and testimony.
Legislative and Member Relations – CCIA had “a full house attendance” with members and legislators at the March 2011 “Day at the Capitol.”
State Policy Successes 2010
Many thanks to CCIA members Joel Serface, Vic Ahmed and Peter Gregory for taking their time to testify on the following bills.
House Bill 1001, the Governor’s first bill carried by Rep. Tyler and Senator Schwartz, increased Colorado’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES) from 20% by 2020 to 30% by 2020. The bill also provides a carve-out for distributed solar, wind and biomass generation. The CCIA provided written testimony in support of the bill.
House Bill 1328, carried by Rep. Miklosi and Senator Schwartz creates a PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) program in the state. This is a statewide, voluntary Special Improvement District that allows 50,000 homeowners to receive financing to hire approved companies to install solar, wind, geothermal renewable energy systems and or energy efficiency improvements for their homes. The CCIA provided verbal testimony on behalf of the legislation.
House Bill 1333, carried by Rep. Vigil and Senator Schwartz created a Governor’s Green Jobs office and Green Jobs Advisory Council that will review and award grants to programs that train individuals for jobs in wind, solar, renewable energy and energy efficiency industries. The CCIA testified in support of the bill and successfully added a seat for a clean technology industry association representative.
House Bill 1365, the Clean Air, Clean Jobs Act was drafted by Xcel Energy, the environmental community and the Governor’s office. The legislation will act to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants in Colorado by replacing or repowering 900 megawatts with natural gas or other low-emitting sources by 2017. The bi-partisan bill was carried by Rep. Solano and Senator Whitehead.
Senate Bill 177, carried by Senator Schwartz and Rep. Scanlan promoted biomass energy development by requiring biomass energy facilities to be valued in the same manner as wind or solar energy facilities. The CCIA successfully removed “woody” from the definition of biomass to broaden the types of fuel sources.
Senate Bill 180, carried by Senator Williams and Rep. Kerr created a 9-member smart grid task force that gathered information and reported to the PUC and general assembly on issues related to the implementation of a smart energy grid in Colorado. The CCIA ensured that the smart grid industry had a seat on the task force and is involved in the development of the white paper. The task force’s initial report was delivered in January 2011.
Executive Orders - The CCIA drafted language that was turned into two executive orders to promote the future financing and investment of Colorado’s clean-tech and bioscience industries.
The first order creates the “Investment Opportunity Index” on the Colorado Office of Economic Development’s web site. This index will classify opportunities for capital investment in Colorado and serve as a clearinghouse for potential investors and partners
The second order calls for the formation and quarterly meeting of a Roundtable on Venture Capital. The group will serve at the direction of the Colorado Office of Economic Development as an advisory group supporting the state’s efforts to encourage investment in companies located in Colorado and to assist the state in engaging the venture capital and investment community.