A Colorado state regulatory agency on Monday finalized plans to require utilities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The state’s Public Utilities Commission’s Clean Heat plan requires natural gas suppliers to reduce emissions associated with heating buildings by 41 percent in 10 years and 100 percent by 2050, according to the Colorado Sun.
The plan represents a compromise between environmental groups’ calls for a 55 percent reduction by 2035 and less stringent proposals by industry groups and some state agencies. The Colorado Energy Office and the state health department’s Air Pollution Control Division had asked for a 30 percent target by 2035, the news outlet reported.
“While the commission’s approved target of 41 percent emission reductions by 2035 is not as strong as we recommended, it represents a significant step forward in decarbonizing Colorado’s gas utilities, and it rejects calls to weaken the target that was originally proposed,” Sierra Club attorney Jim Dennison told the Colorado Sun.