Senate Transportation & Energy

Wednesday, April 1, 2026·1h 29m·▶ Watch / Listen

HB 26-1208, extending the Compliance Advisory Panel, passed narrowly 5-3 with three Republicans voting no.

Key Actions

·HB 26-1081 – Colorado Grid Optimization ActPassed

+ 4 more actions

Controversies

Whether the legislature needs to direct the PUC on advanced transmission technologies — HB 26-1081

Senator Maria Baisley questioned whether the PUC is 'resistant to using the new optimization technology' and whether the legislature needs to require utilities to use efficiencies they would presumably want anyway; Senator Ryan Roberts responded that the bill targets the already-legally-required 10-year transmission plan and would require utilities to fully consider ATTs and justify any decision not to use them even when cost effective. Baisley voted no, stating 'I'm going to be a no today, but I may change my mind after I do a little bit of research on all this, respectfully.'

+ 3 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“I do believe that we have to be very careful that in our first foray in going to the ballot that we're not overreaching and that impacted communities are the ones that are going to be responsible for the taxing. Because I have been around for a bit. I've seen attempts at times when wonderful ideas were put out, but the area was too broad and the people who were not directly impacted ended up defeating the purpose.”
Maria Garcia Berry, nominee to Front Range Passenger Rail District Board — Garcia Berry testified on the importance of aligning taxing district boundaries with communities actually served by the Front Range passenger rail route, in response to questions about whether Adams County should be included.

Votes

Move HB 26-1081 as amended to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendationPassed

Yes (7)Marc Catlin, Tony Exum, William Lindstedt, Kyle Mullica, Tom Sullivan, Matt Ball, Lisa Cutter

No (1)Mark Baisley

Absent (1)Byron Pelton

Move HB 26-1208 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendationPassed

Yes (5)Tony Exum, William Lindstedt, Kyle Mullica, Tom Sullivan, Matt Ball

No (3)Mark Baisley, Marc Catlin, Byron Pelton

Absent (1)Lisa Cutter

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TranscriptPreview

Good afternoon. The Transportation and Energy Committee will get started. Ms. Forbes, please call the roll. Senators Basley. President Catlin. Here. Exum. Good afternoon. Linstadt. Excused. Malika. Here. Elton. Excused. Sullivan. Here. Ball. Excused. And Madam Chair? Present. All right, thank you. For the first item on our agenda today, we're going to have a confirmation hearing for Maria Garcia Berry for the Front Range Passenger Rail district board. If Mr. Pace is here, can you please come up there you of course you're here. And launch us. Since I was here. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee. Sal Pace, General Manager of the Front Range Passenger Rail District. I was here two weeks ago and withstood the very tough questions and input from the committee. And thank you for referring the six other nominees who were here that day. I'm back because we saved the best for last. And Maria Garcia Berry is a nominee from the Governor. As a reminder, this district and our board has a unique set of nomination protocols. A combination of nominees from local MPOs and from government entities, but as well as some nominees from the governor as well. So…

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