If you’ve been following along with our We Are The Change webinars, then you know we’ve had some great discussions about important bills moving through the Colorado Legislature. And hopefully you’ve had a chance to take a few actions that have made an impact in seeing the success of several of the bills we’ve worked on.  On the other hand, if you have been tuning in, you’ve probably noticed that even best laid plans can go awry, and not every webinar runs as smoothly as any organizer might hope for.

We’ve had some discussions as a team, and checked in with some of you, and we’ve decided to shake things up. We’re altering the format of our We Are The Change series in a way that will allow us to discuss upcoming bills in a more timely way, continue to connect you to actions you can take on bills that need our support, and break the need to be available at a specific time every other Thursday.

With those goals in mind, our Alliance is going to continue recording conversations with legislators, organizers, and community members on bills being considered at the Capitol. But instead of hosting these interviews live, we’re going to make the interviews more interpersonal and then release a few pre-recorded conversations each week via Facebook and our YouTube channel so you can watch them at a time most convenient to you. These will also be shorter conversations that range between 5 and 15 minutes. We’ll continue to send out actions you can take via email as well as let you know what to keep an eye out for each week.

We realize this is a different format, that may not feel as connecting to those of you who have tuned in repeatedly every other week. I want to thank those of you who have made the time as often as possible to be available, and I also want to recognize those of you who have reached out and expressed interest, but haven’t been able to attend at that time. As an organization, in a time of COVID and always, we are constantly learning, and we appreciate you as we try something different.

A Look Ahead

Here are the bills we’ll be learning more about in the next few weeks. I know I’ve said it before, but it’s still true with each bill – these bills are vitally important, and we hope you’ll tune in and take action to see them become law in the State of Colorado.

1.      SB21-072: Public Utilities Commission Modernize Electric Transmission Infrastructure
Meeting statewide clean energy goals is a major focus for our Alliance and our Clean Energy Committee. But clean energy technologies are only as good as their transmission capabilities, meaning, we need to be able to move alternative energy sources from one place to another around the state. If passed this bill would create the Colorado Electric Transmission Authority, which would oversee transmission needs on a statewide level.

This bill has bi-partisan sponsors, including two West Slope legislators — Senator Don Coram and Representative Marc Catlin. This bill has almost made it across the finish line and now just needs the support of our West Slope Representatives in the House.

2.      Woven throughout almost all our work here at our Alliance is the urgent need to address the climate crisis. But often, the most impacted communities are missing from the conversation both within our own organization and on a statewide level. HB21-1266 would help ensure Colorado decision makers address environmental inequities. Impacted communities on the front lines of Climate Change include Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and low-income communities. And in addition to bearing the effects of climate change these communities are often excluded from decision-making processes.

HB21-1266 would make important strides toward achieving environmental justice by legally defining “disproportionately impacted community,” using qualitative and quantitative factors; requiring state agencies to follow best practices for outreach and engagement with disproportionately impacted communities; establish an Environmental Justice Action Task Force in the Department of Public Health and Environment; and require the task force to create a comprehensive environmental justice plan for the state of Colorado and report back to the General Assembly in November 2022.

3.      HB21-1242 would create an Agricultural Drought and Climate Resilience Office in Colorado. As residents in Western Colorado we’ve all had concern about ongoing and increasing drought and what that means for our water, crops, and communities. This new office would provide voluntary technical assistance, non-regulatory programs, and incentives that increase the ability to anticipate, prepare for, mitigate, adapt to, and respond to hazardous events, trends, or disturbances related to drought or the climate. This bill is sponsored by two West Slope champions — Senator Kerry Donovan and Representative Barbara McLachlan.

4.      And finally, if you had a chance to hear from the President of the Hispanic Affairs Project, Tom Acker, on SB21-087, the Farmworkers’ Bill of Rights, then you know we didn’t have enough time to really give this bill the full attention it deserved. So we’re going to invite HAP back to continue the conversation, and encourage our members to take every action to see this bill make it through the state legislature in 2021 to support our farmworkers.

We’ve seen a plethora of important bills this year, and it makes me proud to live in a state willing to tackle such important issues. I’m imagining the future a year from now where these bills and others have passed, and what that could mean for us, for the West Slope, and for Colorado. We’ve likely got just a little over a month left in session and a world of opportunity.