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Lawmakers Put Reliability And Energy Costs Ahead Of New Climate Mandates In 2026
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The Sum & Substance, Approved, Commentary, State

Lawmakers Put Reliability And Energy Costs Ahead Of New Climate Mandates In 2026

By: Ed Sealover | Commentary, The Sum & Substance This legislative session was supposed to be a defining one for the utility and energy sectors — one in which legislators would debate and pass a long-discussed plan to move up the net-zero emissions deadline by 10 years and also remake the Public Utilities Commission. But the story of the 2026 session for energy advocates instead turned out to be all about what didn’t happen. No 2040 net-zero plan got introduced. No radical changes came through the extension of the PUC. And for the first time in over a decade, no existential threats to the oil and gas sector received debate in the 75th General Assembly. The topics that took center stage instead were reliability and affordability of energy sources. Legislators h...
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Proposed insurance fee hikes spark fears of worsening affordability crisis
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The Sum & Substance, Approved, State

Proposed insurance fee hikes spark fears of worsening affordability crisis

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance In an effort to try and stop a massive exodus of individuals from the private insurance market, Colorado legislators are looking again at raising fees on all health-insurance policies in order to subsidize the premiums of state residents who face the highest costs. Rep. Kyle Brown, D-Louisville, said Friday that he is considering bringing a bill during the upcoming special session that would allow the Health Insurance Affordability Enterprise to raise fees on all plans sold in the state by as much as 0.75%. The bill also would seek to impose a new $3 per-member-per-month fee on all stop-loss insurance policies that are purchased by self-insured employers to guard against catastrophic claims. The two fees could together raise about $100 mil...
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Polis Plans Special Session After Trump’s Budget Bombshell: Dems See Opportunity to Revive Agenda
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State, Approved, The Sum & Substance

Polis Plans Special Session After Trump’s Budget Bombshell: Dems See Opportunity to Revive Agenda

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Passage Thursday of the budget-cutting “One Big Beautiful Bill” essentially mandates that the Legislature will return to the Capitol for a special session this summer to deal with aspects of the federal law impacting Medicaid funding and artificial-intelligence regulation. Gov. Jared Polis’ Office of State Planning and Budgeting estimates the bill’s reductions to Medicaid spending, food assistance and other benefits that are largely or partially federally funded will cut state revenues $500 million and boost state costs another $500 million. That will necessitate legislators to come back and re-balance the budget, likely by reducing funding to a number of other programs. And before passing the bill, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators strip...
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Unions introduce ballot measure to require employers prove ‘just cause’ to fire workers
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Approved, State, The Sum & Substance

Unions introduce ballot measure to require employers prove ‘just cause’ to fire workers

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado’s labor battles escalated significantly on Friday, as the state’s largest unions filed a ballot initiative that would require private-sector employers to prove just cause before they could suspend or fire any workers. The filing of Initiative 43 follows the Feb. 19 decision by Colorado’s title board to approve the wording of a proposed 2026 ballot initiative from the Independence Institute that would ask voters if they would like to make Colorado a right-to-work state. And both are moving while a bill to upend Colorado’s unionization-governing Labor Peace Act has passed the Senate and is scheduled for its first House committee hearing on Thursday. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE SUM & SUBSTANCE
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Artificial intelligence workers may get special protections in Colorado
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Approved, State, The Sum & Substance

Artificial intelligence workers may get special protections in Colorado

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Even before Colorado has established regulations for artificial-intelligence development, legislators are advancing a proposal to give special whistleblower protection to sector workers — a plan raising significant concerns for business groups and Gov. Jared Polis. It’s not the broad idea of safeguarding whistleblowers that bothers opponents of House Bill 1212 so much as several provisions in the bill and the idea that Colorado would be alone in offering such great protections to workers who report major risks to state authorities. A key official from the Democratic governor’s administration said that Polis worries this will incentivize companies to move AI development and highly paid workers outside of Colorado to states where they face lower...
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Business leaders win key votes on two environmental bills
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Approved, State, The Sum & Substance

Business leaders win key votes on two environmental bills

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado legislators pushed backed against environmental activists in two ways Thursday, rejecting a bill to require extensive emissions reporting by large corporations and advancing a plan to study how to consider more fully the impact on jobs of future climate regulations. The dual decisions by the House Energy and Environment Committee marked an eye-opening change in direction after legislators have spent most of the past six years passing increasing emissions regulations. And Democratic legislators who sided with Republicans and business groups on the bills stated it is time to think more about the economic impact of state rules and to avoid adding burdensome regulations that could have negligible effects on the state’s air quality. REA...
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New bill would boost safety, background-check requirements for TNCs like Lyft, Uber
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Approved, State, The Sum & Substance

New bill would boost safety, background-check requirements for TNCs like Lyft, Uber

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Seeking to protect Uber and Lyft customers, a group of Democratic lawmakers unveiled a bill Friday that would boost steps companies must take to perform background checks on drivers and ensure unauthorized persons are not picking up rides in place of those drivers. The bill, sponsored by Reps. Jenny Willford of Northglenn and Meg Froelich of Greenwood Village, also would ensure transportation-network-company drivers work no more than 10-hour shifts and would require each ride to be continuously recorded via video and audio. It also would allow people injured by violations of the bill to file civil lawsuits against a TNC or a driver, and it would make violations of the proposed law deceptive trade practices under the Colorado Consumer Protectio...
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New effort to ban ‘junk fees’, HB 1090, shifts focus to different industry
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Approved, State, The Sum & Substance

New effort to ban ‘junk fees’, HB 1090, shifts focus to different industry

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado Democrats once again are seeking to ban “junk fees” that get added without option onto the advertised prices of goods and services, but their focus this year has shifted largely from hotels and ticket sellers to landlords. Following a four-hour hearing Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee advanced House Bill 1090, which seeks to define the kinds of fees that are deceptive pricing practices and offer protection to consumers through a new private right of action. HB 1090, sponsored by Democratic Reps. Emily Sirota of Denver and Naquetta Ricks of Aurora, passed on a party-line vote and may be debated by the full House as soon as next week. Ricks first brought the bill last year, saying she wanted to stop add-on bill charges l...
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Legislators introduce divergent bills addressing construction defects
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Approved, State, The Sum & Substance

Legislators introduce divergent bills addressing construction defects

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Gov. Jared Polis and a bipartisan group of lawmakers rolled out the latest effort to reform construction-defects laws and jumpstart the condominium market Wednesday — a day after opponents introduced a conflicting bill that sets the playing field for this year’s debate. House Bill 1272, which has bipartisan support, would make it more difficult to file lawsuits over reputed defects in owner-occupied multifamily housing, would offer developers more affirmative defenses against such suits and would prioritize repair over reparations. It mirrors a bill that died in the House last year in some ways but also seeks to re-focus specifically on lower-cost condominiums and “de-risks the market” by providing owners more pathways to resolve disputes more...
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Struggling Colorado restaurants seek legislative help in rolling back key regulation
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Approved, State, The Sum & Substance

Struggling Colorado restaurants seek legislative help in rolling back key regulation

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance A Colorado restaurant industry battered by increasing costs and regulations will ask legislators Thursday to help it in a way that officials believe can make a huge difference — reducing wage requirements on its already highly compensated bartending and wait staff. In doing so, groups like the Colorado Restaurant Association will find themselves in a decidedly different position than they’ve occupied for several years, when they’ve rallied sector workers to fend off proposed regulations like the 2023 “Fair Workweek” bill. And in seeking proactive help, they’ve amassed a coalition that includes both conservative small-government Republicans and liberal pro-labor Democrats who believe the existing stream of eatery closings will grow into a ragin...
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