Washington, D.C. - Today, industry and community leaders from across Colorado expressed support for the Pollution Transparency Act, legislation introduced by Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet that would standardize the metric used by federal agencies to measure the cost of climate pollution.
For more information about the bill, please refer to the PRESS RELEASE issued earlier today and to the FACT SHEET.
The cost of climate pollution is becoming a broadly recognized metric for key decision-makers across the country, including in Colorado. For instance, the Colorado Public Utility Commission decided earlier this year to require the Public Service Company of Colorado to consider the cost of climate change when planning its electricity generation.
The following Colorado leaders expressed support for the bill:
"At New Belgium we're pleased that our US Senator Michael Bennet has introduced the Pollution Transparency Act. Like him we believe that certainty in regulation and a consistent policy on greenhouse gas emissions is good for our country, our communities and our breweries." - Kim Jordan, Co-founder and Chair of New Belgium Brewing Company
"I am encouraged to see legislators including Senator Michael Bennet working to find science-based decisions to standardize the accounting measures for greenhouse gases. Colorado, along with other states, has worked too hard on issues regarding our climate to ignore the strides we have made to improve not only the air that we breath, but our way of life." - Dale McCall, President of Rocky Mountain Farmers Union
"A national standard for measuring the cost of climate pollution is helpful to Colorado communities, and in particular Fort Collins, which has some of the most ambitious climate action goals in the country. To meet this challenge for our community, we need benchmarks that will help us compare ourselves to others so we know we're on track. We're also working closely with Colorado Communities for Climate Action at the state level so we can all work together to improve our future." - Wade Troxell, City of Fort Collins Mayor
"As an elected representative of a community whose major economic drivers are agriculture and outdoor recreation, industries which are both threatened by the negative impacts of climate change, I support and applaud Senator Bennet's legislation. Codifying, quantifying and acknowledging the financial costs of climate polluting emissions and using science as a metric to direct policy and decision making is just common sense and good proactive governance." - John A. Messner, Gunnison County Commissioner
"This bill would reestablish the common-sense policy of having the same economics- and science-based metric for evaluating the impacts of rule-making across the wide reach of federal policy. It makes sensible provision for the updating of the metric on the basis of developing understanding. Further, it also would provide a standard that state and local governments can apply as we seek to address the dangerous and growing impacts of climate change." - Dick White, City of Durango Mayor
"The Boulder Chamber recognizes the need for accurate and consistent accounting of the economic impact of carbon emissions and supports the efforts of Senator Bennet and his colleagues to maintain that consistent accounting along with a process for regularly assessing the accuracy of the economic impact metric." - John L. Tayer, President and CEO of Boulder Chamber
"Boulder County is already experiencing firsthand what a changing climate will generate in the form of extreme weather events, deadly floods, costly droughts and intense wildfires. We support Sen. Bennet's Pollution Transparency Act because having a consistent, science-based national standard for measuring the cost of climate pollution is essential to efforts to mitigate these damaging impacts at the federal, state and local level." - Board of Boulder County Commissioners
"The City of Aspen supports the effort and the bill to establish and retain a social cost of carbon to be used by Federal agencies. Carbon, methane, and other greenhouse gases contribute to the changing climate that is having detrimental effects on local and national economies across the nation. It is imperative that the Federal government account for all the costs associated with emitting greenhouse gases, including the cost to the country's social well-being." - Steve Skadron, City of Aspen Mayor
