The conservation community is approaching the 2008 legislative session with three priority issue campaigns — Water, Global Warming Pollution, and Smart Growth and Transportation.

» Track the bills we're working on
» Get involved with Capitol Watch

Protecting Our Rivers
Colorado's water future relies on flexible choices for water right holders, promoting healthy communities, healthy rivers and sustainable options for our farmers and ranchers. Climate change, population growth and increasing pressures on our rivers demand better tools, increased options for water right holders, not only ensure that they can maintain the value of their water rights; but also provide protection for our special places.

Legislative propsals for the 2008 session will include:

• Creating a tax incentive for water rights holders to donate water rights to the Colorado Water Conservation Board for use as instream flow (ISF) rights.  The purpose of this measure is to increase the utilization of the ISF program as a tool to protect and/or improve stream flow and aquatic and riparian ecosystems across Colorado;
  
  
• Eliminating barriers to protecting rivers. This legislation will protect water rights owners who contract with the Colorado Water Conservation Board for use of all or a portion of a water right for instream flow use.  Specifically, the legislation would ensure a water right owner would not be penalized by losing consumptive use credits while their water right is being used for instream flow purposes by the state;
  
  
• Funding for the state to protect rivers.  The Colorado Water Conservation Board can purchase water rights for the sole purpose of keeping streams healthy but they have not had the money to make these acquisitions in recent years.  The conservation community is supporting an allocation of $1 million from the severance tax perpetual base account for this purpose.

» watch press release video on this issue
» more

Global Warming Pollution
Stopping global warming is essential to preserving Colorado's natural beauty, protecting our water supply, and maintaining Colorado's agricultural and outdoor recreation industries. States across the country are stepping up and taking action to address climate change, and it's time for Colorado to do the same. We can be the state that supplies the solutions.

The conservation community will be pursuing a legislative agenda that will get us out ahead of the curve and on track to reduce global warming emissions 80% below today's levels by 2050—what science tells us is necessary to avoid the worst affects of global warming.

Legislative propsals for the 2008 session will include:

• Continuing to build the Renewable Energy Economy by capitalizing on Colorado's solar energy potential;
  
  
• Increasing efficiency efforts to cut down on the amount of dirty energy we use;
  
  
• Cleaning up our transportation fuels by getting them on track to have 10% less carbon by 2020;
  
  
• Mking renewable energy more accessible for all Coloradans

» watch press release video on this issue
» more

Smart Growth and Transportation
Colorado is expected to grow by another million people in the next decade.  Where these people live and work and how they move from one place to another will have enormous impacts on the environment and quality of life in our state.  Poorly planned growth eats up precious open space and farmland, exacerbates traffic congestion and air pollution, uses more of our scarce water resources and undermines the livability of our neighborhoods.

Sprawl also negatively impacts our global climate; with transportation accounting for a full third of America's greenhouse gas emissions. Growth and transportation choices that lead to more highways and automobile-dependent development greatly add to our global warming problem.

Smart transportation and land use planning focuses on growing in a way that takes advantage of existing infrastructure and makes it easier for Coloradans to drive less. Better planning helps people live within walking or bicycling distance of some of the destinations they need to get to and shortens the automobile trips they need to make. More compact development avoids the exorbitant costs of sprawl and makes communities more livable.

Legislative propsals for the 2008 session will include:

• Ensuring that transportation funding flows to communities doing smart growth planning;
  
  
• Ensuring that large new developments have a certain supply of water before the developments are permitted; and 
  
       
• Prohibiting the use of urban redevelopment taxpayer funding to subsidize development of agricultural lands.

» watch press release video on this issue
» more