Colorado clean energy policy landscape: A case study

Abstract

For decades, countries, states, and municipalities have established energy policies to address local air pollution and global climate change goals. The thousands of policies and measures enacted globally take various forms but are aimed at different sectors of the economy. These policies are the result of a complicated process of analysis, budgeting, management, and politics. Still, greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise globally. Good models remain rare that bridge the gap between high level aspirations and implementation. The U.S. state of Colorado offers an example over the last two years for bridging the aspiration and implementation gap. This paper provides an overview of the recent legislative sessions, and how the policies enacted support the Colorado Climate Change Roadmap.