Public Policy Committee

We Advocate for Cleantech

Legislative Review

The Colorado Cleantech Public Policy Committee is open to all Colorado Cleantech members and meets regularly during the State Legislative session (January to May) to analyze, debate and consider supporting or opposing state and federal legislation impacting the cleantech business community. If you are a member of Colorado Cleantech and would like to participate in the Public Policy Committee, please contact Chris Votoupal with your interest.

Chris Votoupal

Votoupal Government Affairs

Colorado Cleantech History & Accomplishments

Colorado Cleantech has a long and successful history working to help the cleantech business community thrive in Colorado. Colorado Cleantech has had an active presence at the State Capitol since 2000 and I have had the privilege of working on behalf of Colorado Cleantech since 2012. Our first impactful bill was SB 11-047, which created a continual funding source for cleantech grants by taking a percentage of income tax growth in the cleantech and bioscience sectors depending on budget surplus years. This funding mechanism was folded into Colorado Cleantech’s showcase legislation – HB 13-1001, the Advanced Industry Acceleration Act.

Since the passage of HB 13-1001, and utilizing the innovative tax funding mechanism, 714 grants have been awarded, totaling over $128 million, with an additional $2.5 billion in leveraged third-party capital. As of the 3rd Quarter of 2022, almost $29 million has been awarded to cleantech companies and projects. Two cleantech companies, eLightning Motors and Solid Power, received Early-Stage Advanced Industries grants at a critical time and went on to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The program was extended two times with bipartisan sponsors (SB 23-066 and HB 24-1396), and now the program will be fully funded until 2034.

Additional Bipartisan Legislative Victories

  • HB 13-1258 – Clarifies that if a business places an electric vehicle charging station or natural gas fueling station on their property and offers this to their customers, they are not regulated by the PUC. This policy opened the door to allow utilities to invest in EV charging.

  • HB 13-1110 – Revamped alternative fuels taxation across a variety of technologies. CCIA was proud to introduce language to add $50 annual fee for electric vehicles of which $30 goes into transportation projects just like the gas tax and $20 goes into an EV charging infrastructure fund. This fund continues to grow with EV adoption and has raised millions to help EV charging infrastructure buildout.

  • HB 17-1090 – Extends the Advanced Industries Investor Tax Credit for 5 years with $750K available per year.

  • HB 22-1149 – Advanced Industries Investor Tax Credit extension 4 additional years till the 2026 tax year. The annual amount increased to $4 million per year.

  • 2020 – Successfully killed an attempt to zero out the Advanced Industry’s budget and essentially end the program during the budget uncertainty with Covid.