The Colorado General Assembly’s Joint Budget Committee last week approved a $27 million budget bill cutting all funding the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment. Committee Republicans, angered by Gov. John Hickenlooper’s (D) decision to continue work to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, initially attempted to cut the department’s budget by $212,000, the rough estimate of the cost to work on the plan according to The Denver Post.
However, committee Democrats blocked the initial proposed reduction and pushed for full funding of the department. Republicans blocked that proposal, resulting in a 3-3 stalemate cutting funding effective July 1.
The department is tasked with implementing Clean Air Act air-quality programs. If the department is unable to do so because of the defunding, EPA has the authority to step in and enforce the rules.
The Clean Power Plan, which requires states to develop action plans to meet federally set emissions reduction goals, was put on hold by the Supreme Court in early February and cannot be enforced until, and if, it passes judicial review, likely in late 2017 or 2018. That means state implementation plans, which were due to be submitted by September 2016, now will not be due until a year later at the earliest. Regardless, Colorado and several other states have pledged to continue preparing their plans.
The Clean Power Plan has proven particularly controversial in Colorado, where Hickenlooper supports it while much of the rest of the state government, including the attorney general, who has signed onto a legal challenge to the rule, does not.
