2023 Colorado Revised Statutes › Title 24 - GOVERNMENT - STATE (§§ 24-1-101 — 24-116-102) › GOVERNORS OFFICE (§§ 24-37-101 — 24-38.9-101) › Article 38.5 - COLORADO ENERGY OFFICE (§§ 24-38.5-101 — 24-38.5-507) › Part 3 - COMMUNITY ACCESS TO ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING AND FUELING INFRASTRUCTURE (§§ 24-38.5-301 — 24-38.5-303) › Section 24-38.5-301 - Legislative declaration

(1)
The general assembly hereby finds and declares that:
(a)
Retail deliveries are increasing and are expected to continue to increase in urban and rural communities;
(b)
The motor vehicles used to make retail deliveries are some of the most polluting vehicles on the road, which has resulted in additional and increasing air and greenhouse gas pollution at the local community level from idling delivery vehicles in neighborhoods;
(c)
The adverse environmental and health impacts of increased local emissions from motor vehicles used to make retail deliveries can be mitigated and offset by investing in the charging and fueling infrastructure needed to support widespread public adoption of electric motor vehicles and zero emission vehicles and by replacing the state's dirtiest passenger vehicles with zero emission vehicles;
(d)
Instead of reducing the impacts of retail deliveries by limiting retail delivery activity through regulation, it is more appropriate to continue to allow persons who receive retail deliveries to benefit from the convenience afforded by unfettered retail deliveries and instead impose a small fee on each retail delivery and use fee revenue to fund necessary mitigation activities;
(e)
It is necessary, appropriate, and in the best interest of the state and all Coloradans to incentivize, support, and accelerate the use of electric motor vehicles throughout the state and to enable the state to achieve its electric motor vehicle adoption goals as set forth in the Colorado energy office's "Colorado Electric Vehicle Plan 2020" because widespread adoption of electric motor vehicles:
(I)
Reduces emissions of air pollutants, including hazardous air pollutants and greenhouse gases, at the community level that contribute to adverse human health effects such as asthma, heart attacks, and lung cancer, and adverse environmental effects, including but not limited to climate change, and helps the state meet its statewide greenhouse gas pollution reduction targets established in section
25-7-102 (2)(g)
and its transportation sector greenhouse gas pollution reduction targets established in the Colorado energy office's "Colorado Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap" and comply with air quality attainment standards;
(II)
Helps businesses and governmental entities operate more efficiently and helps individuals and families save money over time by reducing fuel and maintenance costs associated with the use of motor vehicles;
(III)
Reduces the social costs of emissions of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants by reducing such emissions; and
(IV)
Reduces higher emissions of air pollutants in local communities, including disproportionately impacted communities, where there is increased exposure to transportation-related air pollution and where, as many studies confirm, increased exposure to traffic and air pollution results in a higher risk for adverse health outcomes;
(f)
Retiring a relatively small number of high-emitting passenger vehicles and replacing them with low or zero emission vehicles would have a relatively large impact on emissions reductions, as shown by a 2009 study that found that ten percent of passenger vehicles are responsible for more than thirty percent of nitrogen oxide emissions and nearly fifty percent of hydrocarbon emissions;
(g)
One of the best ways to incentivize, support, and accelerate the adoption of electric motor vehicles in both urban and rural areas is to reduce range anxiety and inconvenience for electric motor vehicle users by building readily available, robust, easy to use, and efficient electric motor vehicle charging and fueling infrastructure in communities and along major highway corridors throughout the state;
(h)
Another way to incentivize, support, and accelerate the adoption of electric motor vehicles, promote equitable access to electrical motor vehicles and less expensive electrical alternatives to motor vehicles, and encourage clean travel is to provide incentives in communities, including but not limited to disproportionately impacted communities, for acquisition or use of electric motor vehicles or electric alternatives to motor vehicles and use of transit. Creating access to electric motor vehicles or electric alternatives to motor vehicles for communities, including but not limited to disproportionately impacted communities, addresses inequities by allowing individuals who cannot afford to upgrade to more fuel efficient motor vehicles to upgrade to motor vehicles that produce little or no emissions in their communities.
(i)
By reducing motor vehicle emissions, incentivizing, supporting, and accelerating the adoption of electric motor vehicles at the community level effectively remediates some of the impacts of retail deliveries by offsetting a portion of the increased motor vehicle emissions resulting from retail deliveries.
(2)
The general assembly further finds and declares that:
(a)
To incentivize, support, and accelerate the construction of electric motor vehicle charging and fueling infrastructure in communities throughout the state; incentivize, support, and accelerate the adoption of electric motor vehicles by businesses, including transportation network companies, governmental entities, and individuals; and thereby increase access to electric motor vehicles, minimize and mitigate the environmental and health impacts caused by transportation-related emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases, and allow the state and its citizens to reap the environmental, health, business and governmental operational efficiency, and personal motor vehicle total ownership cost savings benefits of widespread adoption of electric motor vehicles, it is necessary, appropriate, and in the best interest of the state to create a community access enterprise that can provide specialized business services, including impact remediation services, that help communities, businesses, and governmental entities construct the electric motor vehicle charging and fueling infrastructure needed to support widespread adoption of electric motor vehicles, including light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty motor vehicles and motor vehicles used to make retail deliveries, and thereby assuage range anxiety concerns, supply chain disruption concerns, and any other concerns that currently disincentivize the widespread adoption of electric motor vehicles;
(b)
The specific focus of the enterprise is the equitable reduction and mitigation of the adverse environmental and health impacts of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions at the community level through support of the adoption of electric motor vehicles and electric alternatives to motor vehicles at the community level, including but not limited to within disproportionately impacted communities throughout the state;
(c)
The enterprise provides impact remediation services when, in exchange for the payment of community access retail delivery fees by or on behalf of purchasers of tangible personal property for retail delivery, it acts to mitigate the impacts of residential and commercial deliveries on the state's transportation infrastructure, air quality, and emissions by:
(I)
Funding the construction of electric motor vehicle charging infrastructure that supports the use of clean and quiet electric motor vehicles, including motor vehicles used to make retail deliveries;
(II)
Specifically supporting and incentivizing the retirement of old and inefficient motor vehicles powered by internal combustion engines and the adoption of electric motor vehicles, electric alternatives to motor vehicles, and transit use in communities, including but not limited to disproportionately impacted communities, that generally bear the greatest burden of the environmental and health impacts of transportation emissions due to disparities in transportation pollution exposure;
(III)
Providing outreach, education, planning funds, or training to support the successful applications for funding and the performance of entities receiving funds;
(IV)
Contributing to the comprehensive regulatory scheme required for the planning, funding, development, construction, maintenance, and supervision of a sustainable transportation system; and
(V)
Providing additional remediation services to offset impacts caused by fee payers as may be provided by law;
(d)
By providing remediation services as authorized by this section, the enterprise provides a benefit to fee payers when it remediates the impacts they cause and therefore operates as a business in accordance with the determination of the Colorado supreme court in
Colorado Union of Taxpayers Foundation v. City of Aspen
, 2018 CO 36;
(e)
Consistent with the determination of the Colorado supreme court in
Nicholl v. E-470 Public Highway Authority,
896 P.2d 859 (Colo. 1995), that the power to impose taxes is inconsistent with enterprise status under section 20 of article X of the state constitution, it is the conclusion of the general assembly that the revenue collected by the enterprise is generated by fees, not taxes, because the community access retail delivery fee imposed by the enterprise as authorized by section
24-38.5-303 (7)
is:
(I)
Imposed for the specific purpose of allowing the enterprise to defray the costs of providing the remediation services specified in this section, including mitigating impacts to air quality and greenhouse gas emissions caused by the activities on which the fee is assessed, and contributes to the implementation of the comprehensive regulatory scheme required for the planning, funding, development, construction, maintenance, and supervision of a sustainable transportation system; and
(II)
Collected at rates that are reasonably calculated based on the impacts caused by fee payers and the cost of remediating those impacts; and
(f)
So long as the enterprise qualifies as an enterprise for purposes of section 20 of article X of the state constitution, the revenue from the community access retail delivery fee collected by the enterprise is not state fiscal year spending, as defined in section
24-77-102 (17)
, or state revenues, as defined in section
24-77-103.6 (6)(c)
, and does not count against either the state fiscal year spending limit imposed by section 20 of article X of the state constitution or the excess state revenues cap, as defined in section
24-77-103.6 (6)(b)(I)(D)
.
Amended by 2023 Ch. 153,§ 1, eff. 7/1/2023.
Added by 2021 Ch. 250, § 6, eff. 6/17/2021.