A joint committee heard budget presentations, performance audits, and agency overviews from CDPHE, DNR, the Colorado Energy Office, and the Public Utilities Commission in what Representative Brown characterized as a 'bad budget year' with $1 billion in statewide service cuts; no bills were voted on, but sharp partisan exchanges erupted over the cost-effectiveness of greenhouse gas reduction policy, CDPHE lab failures, ECMC enforcement gaps, rising utility rates, and federal funding cancellations totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
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Representative DeGraff argued the state statute requires cost-per-unit-of-emissions calculations and that reducing 1,000 kilotons CO2e amounts to 'a change of point 00001 degrees Celsius,' calling it 'spending money chasing a phantom instead of dealing with real problems.' Mr. Ogletree responded 'I don't have that exact calculation done' and offered to follow up. Senator Ball added: 'What I'm seeing is that we really have no idea what's achieved. We have a high, high degree of cost and it's going to accomplish very little.' Dan Gibbs responded to DeGraff by citing state law setting 50% GHG reduction by 2030 and zero net by 2050, stating 'if you as a legislator don't like that, you can work with your colleagues to make those changes, but we have to follow state law.'
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“The most recent occurred two days ago when we were told that our funding for our suicide prevention programs was terminated effective immediately. Started working on stop work orders and staff layoffs. Did that the entire day before we hit send. We were told that we were sent a letter saying no, those funds weren't going to be terminated.”
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Sign in to subscribeAll right. Am I on? Can y' all hear me? Hello. Hi. I think I can. We good? Okay. I can't hear me anyway. Welcome to. I don't have a go. Welcome to the Smart Act. I do have a gavel. Getting a gavel ready. We're a little rusty, folks. Give us just a second. In a couple months. Okay. The energy. The Joint Energy and Environment Smart act will come to order. Ms. Falco, please call the roll. Senators and Representatives Basley. Excused. Ball. Here. Barone. Excused. Caldwell. Excused. Catlin. Excused. DeGraff. Excused. Exum. Exam might be on the wall. Excused. Goldstein. Here. Jackson. Excused. Joseph. Excused. Olmsted. Excused. Moloka. Here. There's one. Pascal. Here. Elton. Here. Rutinel. Here. Saw. Is that right? Saw. I haven't had to say it yet. Saw. Okay. Senator Catlin's here. Okay. Smith. I'm here. Sullivan. Here. Velasco. Wilford. Excused. Cutter. Present. Mr. Chair. I'm here. All right, folks, so we're a little bit behind schedule, but we will be keeping to a pretty tight schedule as we move through today. So for those of our presenters, please try to stay within the allotted time. This will be the joint Budget Committee to start…
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