{"id":84651,"date":"2017-01-11T05:03:03","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T10:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=84651"},"modified":"2017-01-11T05:03:03","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T10:03:03","slug":"colorados-governor-wont-issue-clean-air-executive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/01\/11\/colorados-governor-wont-issue-clean-air-executive\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado’s governor won’t issue clean air executive"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Colorado's<\/a>
Colorado’s governor John Hickenloope won’t issue clean air executive (Photo by U.S. Department of Agriculture (20120226-OSEC-LSC-0532) [CC BY 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>DENVER\u2014Citing backlash from Republicans, Colorado’s Democratic governor said Tuesday he has abandoned the idea of issuing an executive order to seek a one-third cut in greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.<\/p>\n

But Gov. John Hickenlooper insisted he hadn’t given up on the proposal’s goals _ or his own commitment to maintaining Colorado’s status as a national leader in fighting air pollution.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the response\u2014the pushback\u2014from the executive order was so intense that the potential benefits were outweighed by the collateral damage,\u201d Hickenlooper told reporters on the eve of the 2017 state legislative session.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat being said, I continue to hold it up as a vision\u201d for reducing emissions, he said.<\/p>\n

The draft order revealed by The Associated Press in August would have directed state agencies to work on ways to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power generators by 35 per cent by 2030, compared with 2012 levels.<\/p>\n

It said warming temperatures and violent weather related to global warming threaten Colorado’s economy, including agriculture, skiing and summer recreation.<\/p>\n

The proposal directed agencies to work with utilities to keep energy affordable to consumers. It did not disclose how the state would try to enforce the goals.<\/p>\n

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Clean Power Plan set similar targets for Colorado and separate targets for other states. The Supreme Court suspended that plan pending the outcome of lawsuits challenging the EPA rules.<\/p>\n

GOP lawmakers argued that federal courts had to settle those lawsuits before Hickenlooper could push ahead with any state plan.<\/p>\n

Colorado was the first state in the nation to adopt regulations on methane pollution from oil and gas operations.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper said he saw the proposed order as a \u201cvision\u201d rather than a mandate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy wouldn’t we do that?\u201d he said of outlining its goals. \u201cI think it would be government malpractice not to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DENVER\u2014Citing backlash from Republicans, Colorado’s Democratic governor said Tuesday he has abandoned the idea of issuing an executive order to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":84653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[13401,13400,13399],"class_list":["post-84651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-a-u-s-environmental-protection-agency-clean-power-plan","tag-colorados-democratic-governor","tag-john-hickenlooper","mauthors-james-anderson","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}