COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) Colorado Gov. Jared Polis says he would veto a bill backed by fellow Democrats and making its way through the Legislature that is designed to enforce, through additional regulation, a state plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions to combat global warming.
The wide-ranging bill, sponsored by Sens. Faith Winter and Dominick Moreno and Rep. Dominique Jackson, would direct the state Air Quality Control Commission to enact regulations to enforce the reduction of carbon emissions called for in the plan.
Among other things, the commission, part of the state health department, would be required to issue rules imposing fees on emissions a per-ton basis and require electricity generators and power transmission firms to file plans that align with an 80% reduction of 2005 emissions by 2030.
Polis told the editorial board of the The Gazette of Colorado Springs on Tuesday the bill would essentially give this unelected board, the Air Quality Control Commission, near-dictatorial control of our entire economy with a legal mandate to meet certain hard carbon reduction goals, many of which were already much of the way to."
Asked if he would veto the bill as it stands, Polis responded: Yeah, I mean, were not willing to give dictatorial authority over our economy to one unelected board that lacks the broader mandate and expertise.
