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The House on Friday advanced eight bills from the $800 million Colorado Recovery Plan stimulus package, setting the stage for a vote on final passage on the legislation.
Four Bills From the Colorado Comeback Stimulus Package Advance Through the Legislative Process
Bills to provide aid for farmers & ranchers, small businesses, and rural communities all pass through committees, bill to invest in clean energy finance moves to the House
DENVER, CO - Today, Senate Democrats advanced several stimulus bills through committees as well as the Senate floor. Bills include:
, sponsored by Senators Hansen & Winter.
As Colorado works to transition our energy sector and meet our greenhouse gas reduction goals, there are many opportunities to invest in clean energy projects and help accelerate this transition. This bill allocates $40 million to the Colorado Energy Office for several clean energy finance initiatives. The majority of these funds will be directed to the Colorado Clean Energy Fund, which acts as Colorado’s “Green Bank” with the purpose of financing clean energy projects and bridging gaps between clean energy projects and private capital pro
Senate Republicans prevailed in tacking an amendment on accountability to one of the 36 bills introduced on the Colorado Recovery Plan that they say will help address conflict-of-interest questions on the Clean Energy Fund.
Senate Bill 230 would send $40 million in general funds part of the $800 million left over from the 2020-21 budget year to the Colorado Energy Office. The office would then send $30 million to its former chief operating officer, who now runs the Colorado Clean Energy Fund, which he set up while he was still in the state energy office.
The action has led to Republican accusations that the $30 million is a sweetheart deal for the office s former COO, Paul Scharfenberger.
Funding for clean-energy startups and innovators hasn’t yet reached the levels needed for Front Range cities to achieve net-zero status. Despite the creation of new grant programs, the emergence of Green Banks, creative fundraising methods by companies and institutional investors beginning to enter the market, much work still needs to be done.
That was the message from the Funding Innovation panel at BizWest’s Net Zero Cities summit Wednesday morning, moderated by Quinn Antus, executive director of the Signal Tech Coalition.
“The current scale of clean-energy investment for well-understood technologies is falling well short of what is needed to combat climate change,” said panelist Paul Scharfenberger, executive director of the Colorado Clean Energy Fund.