Gov. Jared Polis’ visit to Durango last Saturday began with encountering screaming protesters on the sidewalk in front of the downtown restaurant where he was to meet city councilors and county commissioners for lunch.
Polis calmly smiled, waved and said, “Thank you for being here” to the protesters, who migrated around the building to continue yelling just outside the fence of the patio where his group attempted to talk over the noise – noise that was amplified by a large, boisterous lunch party also seated on the patio. Protesters’ signs criticized La Plata County Public Health Director Liane Jollon for her role in enforcing safety precautions during COVID-19 (so yesterday), opposed teaching of critical race theory in schools and a variety of other things Polis actually doesn’t have much direct control over.
But it was just another day on the stump for the governor, who signed a bill at Fort Lewis College and met with Southern Ute Tribal leaders before flying back to Denver.
Councilors’ and commissioners’ punch lists of problems they believe the governor can help with contained no surprises: homelessness, workforce housing, broadband access, wildfire prevention, transportation. Oh, and COVID-19 – a topic still important but waning in interest as the peak of infections becomes ever more distant.
It helps that our local elected officials make up a group of intelligent, informed, committed individuals who work well together despite occasional skirmishes (which seem to focus mainly on the question “Whose problem is this?”).
The issues are the same, with slight variations, across the state, Polis said. Some things are going to get better soon; others are more intractable. (No one is pretending homelessness is going to be solved, for example.) But help is on the way in the form of funding for a variety of different initiatives, he said, citing specific state grants.
The governor has taken some heat in the media for his promise that, if state Senate Bill 21-200 passes, he will veto it. That bill would set up specific greenhouse gas emissions goals and hold the state accountable for helping Black, Indigenous and other communities of color combat environmental racism, according to an editorial by former state representative Joe Salazar, head of the nonprofit Colorado Rising. Salazar accused the governor of reneging on his climate change platform.
In an interview after lunch, Polis stuck to his position, saying SB 21-200 would inappropriately place the entire burden of battling climate change on the small Air Quality Control Commission, a part-time, volunteer, governor-appointed board of nine people that is a subset of the Department of Public Health and Environment and supported by only three staff members, according to its website.
What’s needed is in the plans he’s already implementing, Polis said, an “all-government” approach that demands action on climate change from every department of the state. His “Colorado Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap,” issued in January, assigns responsibilities for climate change actions and environmental justice and incorporates requirements of HB 19-1261, the Colorado Climate Action Plan.
Sponsors of SB 21-200 didn’t talk with the governor before introducing the bill.
We admit we haven’t read every word of his 200-plus-page road map, but we’ve read enough to think we should give his plan a chance to effect change, particularly through the greenhouse gas emissions goals and environmental justice aims. Some of those greenhouse gas emissions goals will be enforced by Public Utilities Commission regulations expected to be issued soon, the governor said.
SB 21-200 is nowhere near as comprehensive as the governor’s road map.
So we’re with Polis on his plan to veto that bill if it passes.
“I’m thrilled to engage on anything,” he said, “but this ain’t it.”
