CFOIC's legislative wrapup. An update about the fight over how to define and regulate wetlands. Is Lakewood going to follow in Denver's footsteps (again)?
Tis the season for legislative wrap ups.
With the legislature having finished its work last week, tis the season once again for the wrap up article. I try to avoid too many of them and to avoid posting about same, but government transparency and open government laws is a passion of mine so you'll have to forgive me a post on one.
CFOIC did a good job at summarizing the frankly abysmal legislative session with regard to open meetings and open records law for the year. I don't always see eye to eye with them on everything, but if it relates to either topic above, they cover it.
Worth a look and worth mentioning to others. Regardless of your political ideology, I would hope we could all agree that our ability to do our job as citizens necessarily requires that our government be open with us.
This last session saw multiple doors closing on you. Not okay.
https://coloradofoic.org/wrap-up-tally-of-open-government-losses-in-2024-colorado-legislative-session-couldve-been-higher/
An update about the fight over how to define and regulate wetlands.
I've written in the past about competing attempts to create state law around wetlands after a recent Supreme Court decision about so-called "waters of the United States" and their insistence that states get to make rules, not the EPA.
At my last check in, there were two competing bills and the main issues separating the two fell broadly in line with the questions below:
Who gets to define and regulate state wetlands and waterways?
Are the rules the state makes going to be stricter or only as strict as the former federal rules (the rules prior to the Supreme Court decision)?
The article below puts a cap on the issue; the long story short here is that the two competing bills were both amended and (to use the author's phrase) meshed with each other.
The end product is linked at bottom, and I'll have you note that Senator Kirkmeyer, the Senator who's bill ran opposite this bill scooted on over to be a sponsor on this effort.
In rough answer to my two questions above (in that same order):
CDPHE still gets to make the rules with more guardrails and more assurance that they won't fall hugely behind.
There seems to be no indication about the strictness, but (and I remember this being a concern while I waited to testify against the first iteration of this bill) there does seem to be a longer period before the rules kick in to allow more stakeholder and public involvement.
More details in the article below.
https://tsscolorado.com/a-water-fight-no-more-competing-permitting-bills-mesh-into-consensus-legislation/
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb24-1379
Is Lakewood going to follow in Denver's footsteps (again)? Is it a case of yet more "discussion" as it was with homeless/immigrants?
I got a tip from a reader about some new oil and gas rulemaking (stay tuned--this one comes up later in the week) and at the end of the email this reader make an offhand remark about Lakewood electrifying.
The reader said his city representative told him they were just in the "discussion" stage right now.
That wording sparked a memory about another "discussion" that Lakewood was having about housing migrants and homeless (see a link to my earlier post on the issue second below). As the reader hinted in their email, such discussions are not trivial or meaningless.
I turned again to someone I know who writes a hyper local newsletter on Lakewood. Sure enough, see the first link below to their newsletter, Lakewood is mulling over following in Denver's footsteps.
And I can't help but think that they're courting a lawsuit too. All for the sake of climate righteousness.
If you live in Lakewood and find this concerning, I urge you to contact your representative. Following the Informer (the Lakewood newsletter/blog) is also probably a good idea.
If you don't live in Lakewood and find this concerning, consider this a reminder that you need to start watching what your city and county are doing.
https://lakewoodinformer.com/2024/05/07/will-lakewood-follow-denver-into-lawsuits-over-green-remodeling/
https://coloradoaccountabilityproject.substack.com/p/rest-easy-the-progressives-running?utm_source=publication-search