EDITORIAL: Is Gov. Hickenlooper stealing a page from Obama's executive order playbook?

EDITORIAL: Is Gov. Hickenlooper stealing a page from Obama's executive order playbook?

By: The Gazette editorial board

August 25, 2016 Updated: August 25, 2016 at 9:13 am

Gov. John Hickenlooper has quietly prepared the draft of an executive order to impose costly environmental mandates, countering the will of Colorado's General Assembly, state Attorney General Cynthia Coffman and a ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States. The order would speed Colorado's move away from coal and toward more costly solar and wind.
The Denver Business Journal obtained draft documents outlining a potential executive order that would require cuts of up to 35 percent in carbon dioxide emissions from the state's power sector by 2035.
Aggressive green energy mandates hurt people financially. That's why the federal Supreme Court voted 5-4 in February to put President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan on hold, saying implementation could pose "irreparable harm" to ratepayers and regional economies. The ruling involved a lawsuit filed by Coffman and other attorneys general.
"By forcing our state away from coal-based electricity and to less reliable, more expensive forms of energy, we will all pay through the nose in the form of skyrocketing electricity bills," opined The Denver Post's editorial board, in applauding Coffman's lawsuit in December.
Hickenlooper's plan would circumvent the court's order, along with the Legislature's efforts last spring to hold back the costly Obama/Hickenlooper mandates.
"Gov. Hickenlooper seems poised to steal a page from the Obama playbook by using executive authority to push through radical climate ideas that he can't get approved through the democratic process," said state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling.
The court's decision was a relief to middle- and low-income Coloradans who cannot afford the cost of suddenly abandoning coal for wind farms and solar arrays. It was a relief to thousands of coal miners, rail workers and conventional power plant employees who will lose jobs if Colorado swiftly abandons coal.
We no longer need to speculate about global warming mandates harming low-income households. The financial burden was on agonizing display last week in Pueblo, where more than 400 ratepayers protested the latest rate hike proposal by Black Hills Energy. The company refuses to pass clean energy costs to shareholders, sticking ratepayers with the costs.
Pueblo's residential electric rates cost 37 percent more than the national average, and Black Hills wants an increase of about 5 percent. All this, in a community with median household incomes $20,257 below the state average and a poverty rate nearly double the state average.
Because of high electric rates, employers are passing over Pueblo when starting new operations or relocating. At the rate protest, people broke down in tears while talking about electric bills of $500 and up that have left their cupboards bare. More than 6,000 residents are grappling with shutoff notices, for lack of ability to pay. High energy costs are crippling the town.
That's just Pueblo. Even before the governor orders more aggressive clean energy goals, dozens of Colorado coal communities suffer from anti-coal regulations. The Post reports a 50 percent reduction in Colorado Coal production since 2004, causing the economic downfall of towns scattered throughout the western slopes.
Rational Americans want clean, sustainable energy. It should not be imposed by force, with careless aggression that exceeds the financial capabilities of modest households and communities. Energy advancement need not cause "irreparable harm."
Natural economic constraints respect human needs and limitations better than force of law. Market principles can and should guide our energy transition, just as they have led a constructive information revolution of cable TV and satellite competition, social media, email and increasingly affordable smartphones. Solar arrays, wind farms and other innovative power sources should emerge as technological advancements and competition make them bargains - not burdens - for ratepayers footing the bill.
The Supreme Court and Colorado's attorney general have tried to curtail reckless political mandates that will harm average Coloradans. If the governor circumvents these protections, he will exacerbate economic suffering by executive force.