Opinion: Colorado’s elected officials need to make a climate superfund law a top priority

 On Jan. 10, the Copernicus Climate Change Service announced that 2024 was the first year Earth’s average temperature rose more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average. 

The news of crossing that critical climate guard rail coincided with deadly climate-change driven fires in Los Angeles, which have so far taken 25 lives and destroyed over 12,000 homes and other buildings. The stories of loss emerging from that tragedy are truly heartbreaking.

Catastrophic urban wildfire is quickly becoming the face of the climate crisis in the Western U.S. Colorado is not immune to this reality, where the Marshall fire — Colorado’s most expensive wildfire to date — destroyed 1,084 homes and killed two people in December 2021. 

Indeed, since 2000, significant property damage and fatalities have occurred in Colorado from numerous other climate change-driven fires and floods including the Hayman, Waldo Canyon, Black Forest, Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires, and the Boulder flood, among others. 

The impacts and costs of climate- and weather-related disasters will not plateau; they will continue to accelerate until we stop adding climate pollution to the atmosphere.

If all this wasn’t bad enough, Colorado seems to be caught in a perpetual financial crisis, because of spending limits thanks to the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, increasing health care and education costs and property tax cuts. This year, the Colorado legislature will likely need to reduce the state budget by $750 million. Where will we find enough money to pay the costs of climate disasters and build more resilient structures to replace our losses afterward?

One way to pay for recovery from climate disasters would be to establish a Colorado Climate Superfund. The states of Vermont and New York set up such superfunds in 2024, which are paid for by fees assessed on the largest fossil fuel companies doing business in each state.

According to the U.N., burning fossil fuel is responsible for over 75% of global climate pollution, so it makes sense to charge fossil fuel companies for the damage their contributions cause. Additionally, the fossil fuel industry has known about the effects the use of their products have on the climate since the 1960s, yet has misrepresented the impact of their pollution to the public while increasing drilling and profits. 

The time has come to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their pollution. Just as a restaurant cannot throw its food waste onto the street, why should an oil and gas producer not be responsible for the planet-warming gases they emit into our atmosphere?

The Vermont and New York laws will make fossil fuel corporations responsible for an assigned share of the cost of climate change adaptive infrastructure projects. Examples of these include flood protection projects; upgrading stormwater drainage systems; upgrading roads, bridges and railroads; preparing for and recovering from extreme weather events; and upgrading and retrofitting public and private buildings to mitigate the effects of heat waves and smoke from forest fires.

A Colorado Climate Superfund should cover adaptive infrastructure projects, but it should also be used to compensate Coloradans for climate damage as it occurs and to support a just transition to renewable energy. 

For example, this fund could be used to provide affordable insurance to property owners who can no longer obtain insurance due to increased risk of fires and flooding, and equipment to mitigate adverse health impacts to people living in close proximity to oil and gas production and refinery facilities that release hazardous air pollutants. 

Just transition assistance could include financial support for home energy improvements, heat pumps, solar power and electric vehicle purchases, and training and jobs programs that would help workers in the fossil fuel industry use their existing skills and develop new ones to help Colorado address the consequences of the climate crisis.

A Colorado Climate Superfund fee imposed on fossil fuel companies would serve as a deterrent to reduce future climate pollution; as a resource to address impacts from the pollution that has long resulted in significant damage to the residents, visitors, property, wildlife and environment of Colorado; and as a resource to finally move beyond fossil fuels entirely. 

The Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate calls upon Gov. Jared Polis and members of the General Assembly to start planning for establishing a Colorado Climate Superfund now. Later is too late.

Kevin Cross, of Fort Collins, is an energy engineer and the convener of the Fort Collins Sustainability Group and the Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate.

Leslie Weise, of Dillon, is an intellectual property attorney for the cleantech industry and an advisory board member to 350 Colorado.

The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun’s opinion policy. Learn how to submit a column. Reach the opinion editor at opinion@coloradosun.com.

Follow Colorado Sun Opinion on Facebook.