DENVER — A coalition of associations representing Colorado hotel and apartment building owners, along with commercial real estate developers, are urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to act on a recent Trump executive order and intervene in what they call “overreaching” climate change and emissions regulations being pushed both by Colorado state government, and locally in Denver.
In the letter dated May 21, Mark Williams, executive vice president of the Apartment Association of Metro Denver and the Colorado Apartment Association; Amie Mayhew, president & CEO of the Colorado Hotel & Lodging Association; and Kathie Barstnar, executive director of the National Association of the Commercial Real Estate Development Association (Colorado chapter) said the regulations “that prohibit the use of natural gas fueled HVAC and domestic water heating equipment in thousands of residential and commercial buildings in Colorado” amount to the kind of electrification mandates targeted by President Trump in his executive order titled Protecting American Energy from State Overreach, signed on April 8.
“These regulations, which will force the ‘electrification’ of buildings and deprive Coloradans of their choice of appliances, are precisely the type of mandates targeted by the President’s Executive Order,” the letter states, in part. “These mandates go far beyond infrastructure or design considerations. They represent an attempt by state and local governments to restructure energy consumption by overriding federally established appliance standards and forcing electrification.”
Signatories called on Bondi to get involved, saying her voice would be instrumental in supporting their efforts to restore balance and reject “overreaching state and local climate change laws.”
“The Colorado Electrification Mandates fall squarely within the scope of what the Executive Order was designed to stop,” the letter says. “The Order targets State and local laws relating to ‘climate change,’ ‘environmental justice,’ carbon emissions, or the forced electrification of buildings.”
The letter goes on to highlight four examples of prohibited mandates:
- Compelling property owners “to remove or avoid natural gas appliances such as water heaters and HVAC systems and replace them with electric equipment.”
- Imposing retroactive mandates on existing buildings as well as new construction, “creating crushing economic and practical burdens that will raise rents and decrease the availability of affordable housing and building space.”
- Overriding federal appliance energy use standards, which the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) “expressly preempts.”
- depriving citizens of “their right to use the equipment of their choice.”
The groups then urged Bondi to “evaluate and consider taking action” to “enforce the Federal government’s interest.”
“The Colorado Electrification Mandates present a direct and timely opportunity for DOJ to implement the Executive Order and reaffirm that Congress expressly vested exclusive regulatory authority over appliance energy use and efficiency at the Federal level through EPCA, and that state and local governments may not impose conflicting mandates that nullify Federal standards.”
