On or after January 1, 2026, but before February 1, 2026, an investor-owned electric utility (utility) with more than 500,000 customers must make at least 50 megawatts of inclusive community solar capacity available, and a utility with 500,000 or fewer customers must make at least 3.5 megawatts of inclusive community solar available. Before February 1, 2027, a utility with more than 500,000 customers must make an additional 50 megawatts of inclusive community solar capacity available, plus any unclaimed capacity left over from the previous allocation cycle, and a utility with 500,000 or fewer customers must make an additional 3.5 megawatts of inclusive community solar available. Under current law, a utility customer may subscribe to a portion of a community solar facility. The customer then receives a bill credit on the customer's monthly utility bill in an amount proportional to the customer's share of the community solar facility output. Current law establishes limits on the amount of output from community solar facilities that a utility may purchase. The act requires a utility to acquire the entire output of a community solar facility that is allocated capacity on or after January 1, 2026, (new facility) and apply community solar bill credits to that new facility's subscribers. The act requires a new facility to: Not exceed 5 megawatts of capacity, measured in alternating current; Interconnect with a utility's distribution system; Comply with applicable requirements of the "Colorado Energy Sector Public Works Project Craft Labor Requirements Act"; Reserve at least 51% of its capacity for income-qualified subscribers; Not allocate more than 40% of the new facility's capacity to a single subscriber; and Supply to a subscriber of the new facility no more than 120% of the expected average annual total consumption of electricity by the subscriber; except that no more than 200% of the expected annual total consumption of electricity may be provided to an income-qualified subscriber. The act affords certain protections for subscribers of new facilities. Subscriber organizations and subscription coordinators are prohibited from: Using credit scores, customer scores, or any utility deposit requirements to deny prospective residential subscribers; Charging a sign-up or termination fee to residential subscribers; Engaging in misleading conduct or making false representations toward prospective subscribers; and Preventing a subscriber from transferring a subscription within the utility's service territory if the subscriber moves residences. A subscriber organization shall provide an income-qualified subscriber of a new facility with a subscription discount of at least: 25% of the value of the community solar bill credit; 30% of the value of the community solar bill credit if the new facility receives federal tax credits from the federal "Inflation Reduction Act of 2022" for the specific purpose of being located in an energy community; and 50% of the value of the community solar bill credit if the new facility receives federal tax credits from the federal "Inflation Reduction Act of 2022" specifically for providing income-qualified households with utility bill assistance. The public utilities commission (commission) must also adopt a standardized form that contains relevant information and disclosures that subscriber organizations and subscription coordinators must provide to prospective subscribers. The act also directs a utility to: File with the commission information that establishes cost-sharing mechanisms for new facilities that are connecting to the utility's distribution system, in which the new facility is required to pay only for its proportional share of system upgrades; and Provide information to the commission related to the utility regarding cost-sharing mechanisms and the cost-effectiveness of the utility's interconnection of new facilities when submitting a distribution system plan. The act authorizes the commission to approve cost recovery for prudently incurred costs, including energy purchases, administrative costs, and information technology expenses, by a utility. The act also requires a utility with more than 500,000 customers to acquire 50 megawatts of distributed generation paired with energy storage by June 1, 2026, and an additional 50 megawatts of distributed generation paired with energy storage between January 1, 2027, and June 1, 2027. The act appropriates $116,505 for the 2024-25 state fiscal year to the department of regulatory agencies for use by the commission. The appropriation is from the public utilities commission fixed utility fund. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2024 EFFECTIVE May 22, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under current law, when 2 or more separately owned tracts are within an oil and gas drilling unit (unit) established by the Colorado energy and carbon management commission (commission), in the absence of voluntary pooling and after a reasonable offer to lease, made in good faith (offer to lease), the commission may enter an order pooling the mineral interests of those tracts (pooling order) for the development and operation of the unit if the applicant for the pooling order: Owns more than 45% of the mineral interests in the unit (requisite ownership); or Obtains the consent of the owners of more than 45% of the mineral interests in the unit (requisite consent). The act changes current law by: Requiring that a pooling order application include an affidavit that declares that the applicant has the requisite ownership or obtained the requisite consent (declaration), which affidavit must include certain leasing and well information; Allowing an unleased mineral interest owner (unleased owner), at least 60 days before the first noticed hearing date, to file a protest with the commission disputing the applicant's declaration (protest); Requiring the commission to resolve a bona fide protest and allowing an unleased owner that files a bona fide protest to review certain leasing information; If a unit contains the mineral interests of an unleased owner that has rejected an offer to lease, prohibiting an oil and gas operator, on and after January 1, 2025, from drilling or extracting minerals from a unit that are not voluntarily pooled before a pooling order is entered by the commission; Prohibiting the commission from entering a pooling order that pools the mineral interests of an unleased owner if the unleased owner is a local government that has rejected an offer to lease and the minerals subject to the unleased owner's mineral interests are within the local government's geographic boundaries (local government unleased interest); and If a pooling order application proposes to pool a local government unleased interest and the local government has rejected an offer to lease, requiring the commission to deny the application unless the applicant amends the application to no longer pool the local government unleased interest. For the 2024-25 state fiscal year, $20,483 is appropriated to the department of natural resources from the energy and carbon management cash fund for implementation of the act. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act prohibits a property owner (owner) of a multiunit building, including a multidwelling and multitenant building and a mobile home park, from denying a broadband provider (provider) access to the property to install the necessary infrastructure to provide broadband service. The act specifies the legal obligations and rights of both broadband providers and owners regarding the deployment of broadband infrastructure. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The Colorado professional fire fighters license plate is a distinctive special license plate. Under current law, distinctive special license plates do not expire when an owner of a motor vehicle who has been issued a distinctive special license plate transfers or assigns the owner's title or interest in the motor vehicle. The act provides that the Colorado professional fire fighters license plate expires upon the transfer or assignment of the motor vehicle. A person whose Colorado professional fire fighters license plate expires as a result of the transfer or assignment of the motor vehicle may apply again for the license plate by paying the required fees and fulfilling the application requirements. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Current law requires a gamete agency, gamete bank, or fertility clinic (clinic) to obtain a license from the department of public health and environment (department) on or after January 1, 2025, before the clinic may match or provide gametes or embryos to recipients in Colorado. The act extends this deadline to July 1, 2025. The act requires that a clinic located outside of Colorado shall not match intended recipients located in Colorado with donors, or provide gametes to a recipient parent or parents located in Colorado or to the recipient parent's medical provider located in Colorado, from a donor who does not agree to the disclosure of the donor's identity. The act adds a requirement that applicants for an original and renewal license must submit documentation to demonstrate compliance with licensing requirements. Subject to available appropriations, the department may, as it deems necessary, perform on-site inspections or complaint investigations of clinics located outside of Colorado. The act extends the deadline for rule-making regarding clinics from July 1, 2024, to January 1, 2025. The act requires that, beginning in fiscal year 2025-26, the general assembly annually appropriate $125,000 to the gamete agency, gamete bank, or fertility clinic fund. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2024 EFFECTIVE May 22, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the office of future of work to create a grant program, in coordination with the Colorado energy office, for lineworker apprenticeship programs (grant program). In connection with the grant program, the office of future of work must create a competitive application process and select apprenticeship programs that meet certain training and matching requirements. On July 1, 2024, the state treasurer must transfer $800,000 from the general fund to the Colorado lineworker apprenticeship grant program cash fund, which is created in the act, for the purposes of the grant program. The act also requires an investor-owned electric utility that serves 500,000 customers or more in the state (qualifying retail utility) to upgrade the qualifying retail utility's distribution systems as necessary to support the: Achievement of the state's beneficial and transportation electrification and decarbonization goals; and Implementation of federal, state, regional, and local air quality and decarbonization targets, standards, plans, and regulations (decarbonization targets and standards). In connection with these goals and decarbonization targets and standards, a qualifying retail utility is required to: Commence a data collection process to inform future energization timelines; Adopt certain cost caps; Propose to the public utilities commission (commission) the use of an optional flexible interconnection or energization tariff or phased interconnection or energization agreement by a customer as an alternative to system upgrades that would otherwise be required for interconnection or energization; and Establish a procedure for customers with a hybrid facility to complete the interconnection and energization process through a single application. A qualifying retail utility is required to identify interconnection and load hosting capacity for distributed energy resources for disproportionately impacted communities within its service territory. Prior to the establishment of a grid modernization adjustment clause, a qualifying retail utility shall recover forecasted investments placed into service and costs incurred for certain capital investment and operations and maintenance expenses (distribution activities) for a period of time ending on December 31, 2025. Recovery of the costs associated with the distribution activities must occur through the transmission cost adjustment clause or another existing adjustment clause, subject to certain conditions. Current law requires certain utilities to file a distribution system plan (plan) with the commission. The act also requires the plans of a qualifying retail utility to create sufficient hosting capacity across the qualifying retail utility's electrical distribution system to support the implementation of the decarbonization targets and standards and certain other laws, rules, plans, and policies. In developing a plan, a qualifying retail utility must consult with and provide opportunities to engage disproportionately impacted communities. As part of a plan proceeding, a qualifying retail utility is required to present at least 2 future planning scenarios with corresponding investments to show future different states of the distribution system. In evaluating a qualifying retail utility's plans, the commission must evaluate whether the plan satisfies certain criteria. In addition, the plan must include a performance-based framework, which must consist of certain specified components. A qualifying retail utility must include in the qualifying retail utility's plan an analysis of current and future qualified staffing levels necessary to comply with state laws regarding distribution system planning (adequate staffing levels). The commission must review whether each qualifying retail utility's plan has adequate staffing levels before the qualifying retail utility's plan may proceed. A qualifying retail utility must ensure that, in any projects undertaken to implement a plan, all labor is performed by the employees of the qualifying retail utility or by a contractor that meets certain labor requirements. The commission must open a rule-making, for a qualifying retail utility, to consider and establish rules regarding energization timelines; interconnection; interconnection, energization, and electrification of end uses; and maximum individual customer cost caps or fees. Subject to commission review and approval, a qualifying retail utility is required to recover certain projected costs related to distribution activities as part of the qualifying retail utility's plans. If the commission finds that the distribution activities benefit or advance the decarbonization targets and standards or state energy policy goals, recovery of the costs must occur through the grid modernization adjustment clause. For distribution system activities that do not benefit or advance the decarbonization targets and standards or state energy policy goals, recovery of the costs may occur through the grid modernization adjustment clause if the qualifying retail utility meets the criteria established in the performance-based framework in the qualifying retail utility's approved plan. A qualifying retail utility is required to make an annual grid modernization adjustment clause advice letter filing with the commission no later than November 1 of each year with an effective date of January 1 of the subsequent year. No later than February 1, 2025, a qualifying retail utility is required to create and file with the commission an application to implement a virtual power plant program, including a tariff for performance-based compensation for a qualified virtual power plant. The virtual power plant program and tariff must include and implement certain requirements. A qualifying retail utility may apply to recover certain business costs to facilitate a virtual power plant program through the grid modernization adjustment clause. By January 1, 2025, a qualifying retail utility is required to file a plan with the commission to implement programs for the undergrounding of utility distribution infrastructure (undergrounding) in nonfranchised areas of the qualifying retail utility in the state using 1% of the area's gross electric revenues from the prior year. A qualifying retail utility must also consider the public benefit of undergrounding and other community benefit investments in its plans. For the 2024-25 state fiscal year, $420,500 is appropriated from the public utilities commission fixed utility fund to the department of regulatory agencies for use by the commission as follows: $382,670 for personal services; and $37,830 for operating expenses. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2024 EFFECTIVE May 22, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under existing law, the general assembly may annually appropriate up to $450,000 from the severance tax operational fund to the conservation district grant fund. The act increases the maximum amount to $700,000. The act makes the following one-time transfers: $18,259,805 from the severance tax operational fund to the general fund on June 30, 2025; $26,086,559 from the severance tax perpetual base fund to the general fund on July 1, 2024; and $25 million from the local government severance tax fund to the general fund on July 1, 2024. The act appropriates $250,000 from the severance tax operational fund to the department of agriculture. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2024 EFFECTIVE May 22, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
A fire protection district (fire district) has been authorized to receive and spend an impact fee, or other similar development charge, only in connection with a local government's imposition of such fee or charge to fund expenditures by a fire and emergency services provider. The act repeals this limitation and authorizes a fire district to impose its own impact fee on the construction of new buildings, structures, facilities, or improvements on real property within the fire district's jurisdictional boundaries so long as the fee is imposed pursuant to a legislatively adopted schedule that is: Generally applicable to a broad class of property; and Intended to defray the projected impacts on capital facilities caused by the proposed construction. The act imposes the following limitations on a fire district's authority to impose an impact fee: No individual landowner may be required to provide any site-specific dedication or improvement to meet the same need for capital facilities for which an impact fee is imposed; and An impact fee may not be imposed on construction for which an individual or entity has submitted a completed application for a development permit to an approving local government prior to the fire district's adoption of a schedule of impact fees. Additionally, a fire district may waive an impact fee on the development of low- or moderate-income housing or affordable employee housing, as defined by the fire district. The act gives ambulance districts identical authority to that of a fire district to impose an impact fee on the construction of new buildings, structures, facilities, or improvements on real property within the ambulance district's jurisdictional boundaries. The act also gives fire districts and ambulance districts the additional financial power to levy a sales tax within the district's jurisdiction, at a rate determined by the district's board, upon every transaction or other incident with respect to which a sales tax is levied by the state. The tax must be approved by a majority of the eligible electors within the district voting at a regular special district election or at a special election that complies with section 20 of article X of the state constitution and related statutory requirements. Such a sales tax must be collected, administered, and enforced by the executive director of the department of revenue in the same manner as the state sales tax. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2024 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE July 1, 2025(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act increases the amount of the fine for a violation of the Colorado anti-discrimination act from not less than $50 or more than $500 to $3,500 and specifies that a nonprofit does not directly or indirectly participate or intervene in a political campaign merely by renting out space for a political event at the nonprofit's customary and usual rates. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act specifies that an autopsy report prepared in connection with the death of a minor is confidential and may be disclosed by the county coroner to another person or entity only in accordance with certain exceptions. The report is not a public record for purposes of the Colorado open records act. Under the act, upon the request of an entity or individual entitled to the report, the coroner or the coroner's designee shall provide a copy of the autopsy report prepared in connection with the death of a minor to: A parent or legal guardian of the deceased; A law enforcement or criminal justice agency that is investigating the death or prosecuting a criminal violation arising out of the death; A requesting party in a civil case; Counsel for the defendant or the respondent for discovery purposes in a criminal case only if discovery has not otherwise been provided and in accordance with any protective order; A state, local, or regional child fatality prevention review team; The Colorado department of public health and environment as necessary for the collection of data in accordance with the Colorado violent death reporting system and the Colorado unintentional drug overdose reporting system; The Colorado child fatality review team; A county department of human or social services; The division of youth services in the Colorado department of human services; A health-care facility where the deceased had received treatment; A community clinic or a treating hospital for inclusion within the medical records of the deceased; An eye bank, organ procurement organization, or tissue bank; A local or regional domestic violence fatality review team; The Colorado department of human services in connection with the investigation of a fatality that has occurred within any facility licensed under the "Child Care Licensing Act"; The office of the child protection ombudsman; A health-care provider that had previously established a patient-provider relationship with the deceased; The Colorado maternal mortality review committee for the purpose of conducting public health death reviews of deceased individuals who are pregnant or within one year postpartum; The Colorado department of public health and environment and county public health agencies for the purpose of data collection related to the department's authority to investigate and control the causes of epidemic and communicable diseases and related board of health rules; The Colorado department of public health and environment's health facility and emergency medical services division for the purpose of health facilities and emergency medical services investigations; or The public if the death occurs while the minor is in the custody or under the supervision of the state or a local government. Upon written request by any individual, the coroner shall not release a copy of the autopsy report and instead shall release the cause, time, place, and manner of the minor's death, and the name, age, gender, and race or ethnicity of the deceased minor. This information must be released within 3 days of the request or 3 days of receiving the information, whichever is later. Under the act, any person may petition a district court to allow the person access to an autopsy report prepared in connection with the death of a minor. The petitioner shall serve process on the coroner and a members of the deceased minor's next of kin pursuant to the Colorado rules of civil procedure. The district court shall hold a hearing including the petitioner, coroner, and a member of the deceased minor's next of kin, if available. The hearing must be conducted under the simplified process in the Colorado rules of civil procedure. The district court shall provide access if: Public disclosure of the report substantially outweighs the harm to the privacy interests of the deceased and members of the family of the deceased; and The information sought by the petitioner is not otherwise publicly available. A coroner is required to provide the name of the deceased minor and the name and address of a member of the deceased minor's next of kin to the district court, which shall disclose that information to the petitioner under a protective order for the purpose of service of process. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2024 EFFECTIVE January 1, 2025(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the Colorado energy office to issue a request for information by December 1, 2024, to solicit interest from local governments that are served by a dual-fuel utility (utility) in becoming a gas planning pilot community (community). A gas planning pilot community is defined in the act as a local government in which constituents have gas service provided by a utility and an active franchise agreement with the utility, which local government formally indicates an interest in working with the utility to mutually explore opportunities for neighborhood-scale alternatives projects. A neighborhood-scale alternatives project geographically targets decommissioning a portion of the gas distribution system or avoids expanding the gas distribution system in order to serve new construction projects and provides alternative energy service to buildings within the project area that reduces future greenhouse gas emissions required to serve buildings. By April 30, 2025, the Colorado energy office and a utility must jointly file with the public utilities commission (commission) the results of the request for information, identifying up to 5 proposed communities. In identifying proposed communities, the Colorado energy office and the utility must prioritize local governments that are interested in pursuing thermal energy network or geothermal energy projects as part of the proposed community's evaluation of potential neighborhood-scale alternatives projects. The Colorado energy office and the utility must also jointly file a draft agreement between the utility and a proposed community to identify and pursue a neighborhood-scale alternatives project. The commission must approve or modify the list of proposed communities by June 30, 2025. By October 1, 2025, though a utility and local government may agree to extend this deadline, a utility and each approved community must enter into an agreement, and the utility must submit to the commission a list of the communities with which the utility has entered into an agreement. For each approved community, the utility is required to disclose certain data and information to the Colorado energy office, the commission, and the community to inform the evaluation of potential neighborhood-scale alternatives projects. The act requires the utility to work with an approved community to rank neighborhood-scale alternatives projects and, before June 1, 2026, to submit at least one neighborhood-scale alternatives project to the commission for approval if the neighborhood-scale alternatives project has the full support of potentially affected customers. The filing must also contain a list of potential neighborhood-scale alternatives projects that are ranked highly but do not have full customer support at the time of the filing. Prior to June 1, 2027, a utility and a local government must jointly submit an application for commission approval of the neighborhood-scale alternatives projects included on this list, which projects may lack full customer support if the local government has determined that a reasonable majority of customers supports each project. The joint application must also include the net costs of the projects. If a utility will not pursue a neighborhood-scale alternatives project in one or more communities, the utility and local government, prior to June 1, 2027, are required to jointly file a report with the commission explaining why a project will not be pursued in that community. The commission must allow a utility to recover costs incurred from the implementation of a neighborhood-scale alternatives project. In approving a neighborhood-scale alternatives project, the commission may modify the gas utility's service requirement for select premises with an alternative energy service requirement. A utility may propose to fund conversion of existing gas appliances or equipment to nonemitting thermal resources and may also propose to offer new rate structures to pay for thermal energy networks or other nonemitting thermal resources as an alternative energy service. By June 1 of each year following approval of a neighborhood-scale alternatives project, a utility is required to submit a report to the commission on the implementation of any approved neighborhood-scale alternatives projects. By July 1, 2028, or another time determined by the commission, the commission must hire a third-party consultant to conduct an analysis of all approved and proposed neighborhood-scale alternatives projects and present the findings of the analysis to the commission and the general assembly. For the 2024-25 state fiscal year, the act appropriates: $43,650 to the office of the governor for use by the Colorado energy office from the general fund for program administration; and $29,678 to the commission from the public utilities commission fixed utility fund for personal services and operating expenses. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act expands the authority of the energy and carbon management commission (commission) to include the regulation of activities performed for the purpose of engaging in the injection and underground sequestration of injection carbon dioxide in pore space (geologic storage operations). The commission may: Reimpose any regulatory responsibility or financial assurance obligation imposed on a person that exercises the right to control the conduct of geologic storage operations (geologic storage operator) if the geologic storage operator makes a material misrepresentation or omission that causes the commission to approve a site closure; and Assess and collect regulatory and permitting fees from geologic storage operators. Current law requires the commission to promulgate rules that evaluate and address the cumulative impacts of oil and gas operations by April 28, 2024. The act changes current law by extending the deadline for the rule-making to September 30, 2024, and requiring the evaluation of cumulative impacts to address impacts from all operations regulated by the commission. Wells drilled for the exclusive purpose of obtaining subsurface data or information to support operations are not subject to a cumulative impact analysis. The act also allows the director of the commission to hire and designate employees of the commission as administrative law judges who have the authority to administer proceedings on behalf of the commission. Current law provides a statute of limitations of one year after the date of an alleged violation of energy and carbon management laws (violation). The act changes this statute of limitations to 3 years after the discovery of the alleged violation and provides that the 3-year statute of limitations period does not apply if information regarding the alleged violation is knowingly or willfully concealed by the alleged violator. The act also expands the following energy and carbon management law areas to include geologic storage operations: Enforcement and civil penalty procedures; Use of the energy and carbon management cash fund by the commission; Mitigation of adverse environmental impacts by the commission or an operator; and State agency and local government authority over oil and gas development. The act also establishes that: Ownership of a portion of a pore space necessary for geologic storage (sequestration estate) is vested in the owner of the overlying surface estate if the sequestration estate has not been separately severed, conveyed, or reserved; Any conveyance of the ownership of an overlying surface estate also conveys the grantor's ownership of any sequestration estate except in certain circumstances; and A conveyance of the ownership of a mineral estate does not convey the grantor's ownership in the sequestration estate unless the conveyance instrument provides for the conveyance. Upon application of any interested person, the commission must hold a hearing and enter an order (order) providing for the formation of a unit of one or more geologic storage resources (geologic storage unit) if the commission finds that the geologic storage unit is reasonably necessary to effectuate a geologic storage project. The order must include terms and conditions that are just and reasonable and establish a plan for operations of the geologic storage unit (plan). An order is effective only if the plan has been approved by those persons that collectively own at least 75% of the geologic storage resources included in the geologic storage unit area (required approval) and the commission makes a finding in the order of the required approval. The act also allows a local government to request that the director of the commission appoint a technical review board to assist the local government in analyzing and answering any technical questions regarding the local government's land use regulations. The act also requires the department of public health and environment (department) to develop carbon dioxide accounting procedures for geologic storage operations. The commission must compile relevant data to support the carbon dioxide accounting procedures and work collaboratively with the department in implementing the carbon dioxide accounting procedures. The commission and the department must also work collaboratively to address air emissions from geologic storage operations. APPROVED by Governor May 21, 2024 EFFECTIVE May 21, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
