Bill Aimed at Forcing IREA to Expand Programs for Energy Conservation Clears House Committee

A House committee approved Tuesday a measure that would require all rural electric cooperatives with more than 100,000 customers to implement conservation programs.

While the bill does not name any particular rural electric cooperative, it is aimed at the only such entity in Colorado with that many customers - Intermountain Rural Electric Association (IREA).

IREA, which is based in Sedalia and serves customers in Douglas, El Paso, Park, Teller, Clear Creek, Elbert, Arapahoe and Adams counties, has strongly resisted efforts to strengthen programs aimed at reducing electricity use.

The organization, through a vote of its members, opted out of Amendment 37 in 2005. That vote, in which only a small percentage of the cooperative's members voted, stood in contrast to the vote on Amendment 37 in its service territory. More than 50 percent of the electorate in IREA's service area supported Amendment 37 when it was on the ballot in 2004.

Under current state law rural electric cooperatives who have not opted out of Amendment 37 must generate 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Under HB 1323, IREA would have to implement conservation and energy efficiency progams that would achieve a use of renewable energy equivalent to two percent of its 2008 sales by 2012 and to ten percent of its 2008 sales by 2020.

The bill, which is sponsored by Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, and Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, must also be approved by the House Appropriations Committee before it is considered by the full House.

IREA, in addition to opting out of Amendment 37, has also spent large amounts of money on efforts to convince the public that global climate change is not happening or that it is a natural event.

A grass-roots organization called IREA Voices has been organized to advocate for greater use of renewable energy sources and energy conservation programs by the organization.

IREA Voices is sponsoring three candidates for seats on the annual election for seats on the organization's Board of Directors. The election for those seats is to be completed April 18.

Sen. Veiga to Retire at End of Session

A veteran Denver state senator has announced that she will retire at the end of this year's session of the General Assembly.

Sen. Jennifer Veiga, a Democrat who represents downtown and the north-central area of the Mile High City, has been a legislator since 1997.

Veiga, 46, said she would retire so that she could move to Australia with her long-term partner.

She was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1996. She moved to the Senate when a vacancy committee appointed her in 2003 to replace Doug Linkhart, who had been elected to the Denver City Council. Veiga won election to the Senate in 2004 and again in 2008.

Veiga served as House minority leader in 2003 and is currently chair of the Senate Business, Labor & Technology Committee.

She holds a bachelors degree in political science from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a law degree from George Washington University.

A Democratic vacancy committee for Senate District 31 will appoint her replacement.

Veiga has not indicated the specific date on which her resignation from the Senate will take effect.

Immigrant Tuition Bill Dies in Senate

The Senate killed Monday a controversial bill that would have allowed some children of undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition at state colleges and universities.

SB 170, which had drawn intense fire from minority Republicans, was defeated 18-16 on second reading.

Five Democrats joined with the chamber's Republicans to block the bill.

Navy SEAL Dietz Honored by General Assembly

A Littleton man who died in Afghanistan while serving as a U.S. Navy SEAL will have a stretch of South Santa Fe Drive named in his honor.

Petty Officer Danny Dietz, who graduated from Heritage High School, died in combat in 2005. He was killed in action while his unit was engaged in a battle with elements of the Taliban.

Dietz, who was a communications specialist, was part of a SEAL team assigned to capture a Taliban leader in the Hindu-Kush mountains on June 28, 2005.

According to a U.S. Navy press release issued after Dietz' death, the members of the SEAL team "were spotted by anti-coalition sympathizers, who immediately reported their position to Taliban fighters. A fierce gun-battle ensued between the four SEALs and a much larger enemy force with superior tactical position."

A Chinook helicopter called in to assist Dietz and three other SEALs was shot down, resulting in the death of eight other SEAL members and eight Army soldiers.

Dietz' hometown erected a statue in his honor in 2007. Dietz was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross in 2006.

The Navy Cross, which along with its counterparts in the Army and Air Force is a medal awarded for "extreme gallantry" in combat with an armed enemy, ranks second in significance to the Congressional Medal of Honor.

The naming of the section of Santa Fe Drive between C-470 and I-25 was authorized by means of a joint resolution. That stretch of the road will be known as Petty Officer Danny Dietz Memorial Highway.

Tuition Bill Clears Appropriations Committee

The controversial bill that would allow some children who unlawfully emigrated to the United States with their parents to pay in-state tuition at Colorado universities and colleges cleared a key procedural hurdle this morning.

SB 170 was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee and will now go to the floor.

The measure had been expected to run into trouble before the ten-member panel, as one of the six Democrats among the committee members said she would oppose it. But Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, was absent from the committee's meeting today and so the bill was cleared on a 5-4 vote. Democrat Moe Keller, D-Wheat Ridge, joined the Republicans on the panel in opposition.