{"id":69548,"date":"2017-07-11T15:45:08","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T21:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hickenlooper-commits-to-uphold-the-paris-climate-agreement\/"},"modified":"2017-07-11T21:45:08","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T21:45:08","slug":"hickenlooper-commits-to-uphold-the-paris-climate-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hickenlooper-commits-to-uphold-the-paris-climate-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"Hickenlooper commits to uphold the Paris climate agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Gov.
Gov. John Hickenlooper signed an executive order Tuesday committing Colorado to the United States Climate Alliance and upholding the Paris climate agreement. The order also outlines a set of climate-change goals for the state.<\/span>Luke Perkins\/ Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Gov. John Hickenlooper announced Tuesday that Colorado has joined the United States Climate Alliance, a bipartisan group committed to following the guidelines of the Paris climate agreement.<\/p>\n

At the scenic Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Hickenlooper signed an executive order to join 12 states and Puerto Rico that will work toward reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, even as the federal government withdraws from the agreement.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper said in a statement that the order represents Colorado\u2019s commitment to being a leader on climate issues and preserving the outdoor resources that contribute billions of dollars to its economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vast majority of our residents, and indeed the country, expect us to help lead the way towards a clean and affordable energy future,\u201d Hickenlooper said in the statement.<\/p>\n

The alliance Colorado joins was formed in June after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the international agreement to reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change.<\/p>\n

Steve Hogan, Republican mayor of Aurora, said the governor\u2019s announcement represents a step toward Colorado controlling its energy future while Washington, D.C., moves backward from the desire of Coloradans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can no longer rely on what happens or doesn\u2019t happen in Washington, D.C.,\u201d Hogan said.<\/p>\n

But so far, Hogan is the only Republican to publicly support the order.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper said his office has had discussions with the Republican lawmakers about clean energy and clean air but has yet to get widespread support for the goals outlined in his order.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not there yet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Republican leadership in the Colorado Senate refutes having involvement in drafting the order.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if we\u2019re all honest with ourself, we are all kinda surprised, because there was no communication, there was no discussion,\u201d Senate Assistant Majority Leader Ray Scott, R-Grand Junction, said.<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans issued a statement after the announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not Washington, D.C, and here in Colorado we do not govern by executive order,\u201d Senate President Kevin Grantham, R-Ca\u00f1on City, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Republicans also question if the governor can legally change the state\u2019s renewable standards since there already is a statutory goal for 30 percent renewable energy by 2030. They vowed to challenge Hickenlooper\u2019s actions in court if they bypassed the legislative process.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper said he hopes the order will tap into the shift in the Colorado energy market and the growth of wind energy jobs, which Forbes listed as the fastest growing field in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are market forces, again this is not government imposing a regime,\u201d Hickenlooper said.<\/p>\n

Scott, who is the chairman of the Legislature Select Committee on Energy and Environment, disagreed that the shift is driven by the market.<\/p>\n

He said the order is a slap in the face of rural Colorado, which is already hurting from reduction in coal mining jobs, and a departure from the \u201call the above\u201d portfolio that defines Colorado energy sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very clear from the order and from his statements that this is definitely a one way street. There\u2019s nothing in here that tells me he has any interest whatsoever in working on anything new. It\u2019s all about the same renewable Tom Steyer (a California billionaire environmentalist) type approach to energy, certainly not an \u2018all the above\u2019 that we\u2019ve all learned to live with,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

Democrats and some environmental agencies hailed the order as a step forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a real leadership moment for Governor Hickenlooper who has positioned Colorado as a leader among all the states, certainly among states in our region, to take steps that ensure that climate change is held to 2 degrees Celsius or less,\u201d said Jon Goldin-Dubois, president of Western Resource Advocates.<\/p>\n

Gary Wockner, executive director of Save the Colorado River, a Front Range-based environmental group focused on protecting the Colorado River and combating climate change, said the order doesn\u2019t go far enough and actually undercuts one signed in 2008 by former Gov. Bill Ritter.<\/p>\n

The 2008 order called for a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, from 2005 levels, by 2020 and a 80 percent reduction by 2050.<\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, supports Hickenlooper\u2019s order.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is great news for our economy and environment,\u201d Bennet said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The offices of U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner and Rep. Scott Tipton, both Republicans from Colorado, did not respond to calls seeking comment.<\/p>\n

lperkins@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 26 percent by 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,738,13,481,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-69548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-environmental-issue","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-gov-john-hickenlooper","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69548"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=69548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}