The early days of any legislative session are slow, by which I mean that few bills are presented in committees. In Colorado, these early days are characterized by a series of SMART Act hearings (State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent government). Government agencies and divisions must report on past achievements; they also lay out their plans for the future.
In a recent SMART Act hearing about energy we heard an astonishing admission about Colorado’s climate policies.
During the Energy Committee held on January 16, Michael Ogletree, director of air pollution control at the Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) said, “Colorado continues to prioritize reducing greenhouse gas emissions by supporting the adoption and implementation of new regulations and policies. By June 2030 the goal is for this ongoing work is to achieve estimated greenhouse gas reductions of totaling one-thousand kilotonnes of CO2 equivalents per year once fully implemented.” In context, the director seemed to believe that a 1000kt reduction in CO2 (or its equivalent) was substantial and important. But I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
Dumb policy
First, let’s understand what a ‘kilotonne’ is – the world of climate science is based on the metric system. We all know that a ‘regular’ ton is 2000 pounds. A ‘tonne’ (or metric ton) is about 10% larger, roughly 2205 pounds. A kiloton is a thousand tonnes, thus about 2.2 million pounds. Seems like a lot, right?
The anticipated reductions have been mandated by state government, and they don’t come cheap. Since 2019 Colorado spent – or has forced utilities and businesses (and thus you, the taxpayer) to spend several billion dollars to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the state. Amy Cooke from Independence Institute recently noted the costs from 2019 to 2045 are estimated run as high as $142 billion.
But back to the esteemed Director Ogletree.
According to the federal Energy Information Administration, burning one gallon of gasoline produces ~19 pounds of CO2, while the average driver uses ~656 gallons per year. Accordingly, an average Colorado driver is responsible for 12,464 pounds of CO2 emissions per year. If we divide the vaunted “1000 kilotonnes” (= 2.2 billion pounds) by the amount emitted by each driver, we come up with 177,000 (3.5% of the ~5 million registered light trucks and passenger vehicles in Colorado).
In other words, the state is spending billions of dollars and has created hundreds of rules and regulations to – in effect – take 3.5% of Colorado’s light trucks and cars off the road.
In other words, Governor Polis could simply pay 177,000 people $50 thousand dollars each to carpool and realize the same level of CO2 reductions – and still have $130 billion of the $142 billion state government and Colorado utilities plan to spend over the next 20 years. This is not good governance, this is bad, ineffective governance. But there’s more.
Climate experts tell us that nature alone emits about 769 gigatonnes of CO2 each year, most of it from the microbes that release it in the course of their respiration.
Seven hundred and sixty-nine gigatonnes translates to 769,000,000 kilotonnes (769 million kilotonnes). Put somewhat differently, the amount of CO2 Director Ogletree proposes to save in order to impact climate change is roughly 0.0000013ths (or ‘thirteen ten-millionths’) as much as microbes belch out naturally every year. And for this we are spending billions of dollars.
Is there any chance this literally microscopic reduction in CO2 by the state can impact the climate? It’s about the same chance that the billions of dollars we’re spending on the Governor’s climate project can possibly be called ‘smart.’
Colorado State Rep. Ken DeGraaf represents House District 22 in El Paso County.