2023 Colorado Revised Statutes › Title 43 - TRANSPORTATION (§§ 43-1-101 — 43-10-119) › FINANCING (§§ 43-4-101 — 43-4-1507) › Article 4 - FINANCING (§§ 43-4-101 — 43-4-1507) › Part 12 - CLEAN TRANSIT (§§ 43-4-1201 — 43-4-1204) › Section 43-4-1201 - Legislative declaration

(1)
The general assembly hereby finds and declares that:
(a)
Retail deliveries are increasing and are expected to continue to increase in communities across the state;
(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;
(c)
The adverse environmental and health impacts of increased emissions from motor vehicles used to make retail deliveries can be mitigated and offset by supporting the widespread adoption of electric buses for transit fleets and reducing vehicle miles traveled by encouraging people to choose clean, efficient, public transit options instead of personal motor vehicle travel;
(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 electrification of public transit in rural and urban areas throughout the state because electrification:
(I)
Reduces emissions of air pollutants, including hazardous air pollutants and greenhouse gases, that contribute to adverse environmental effects, including but not limited to climate change, and adverse human health effects in and between communities, including communities near high-use transit corridors and disproportionately impacted communities, and helps the state meet its statutory greenhouse gas pollution reduction targets and comply with air quality attainment standards; and
(II)
By reducing fuel and maintenance costs associated with the use of motor vehicles, helps public transit providers operate more efficiently, use cost savings to provide more reliable and convenient transit service to more riders, and further reduce emissions by reducing personal motor vehicle use; and
(f)
By reducing motor vehicle emissions, transit fleet electrification effectively remediates some of the impacts of retail deliveries by offsetting a portion of the increased motor vehicle emissions resulting from such deliveries.
(1.5)
The general assembly further finds and declares that:
(a)
Scientific and government agency studies, including the national climate assessment and the "Colorado Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap", published by the Colorado energy office and dated January 14, 2021, confirm that oil and gas operations can create significant environmental and other adverse impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change and emissions of local air pollutants that are ozone precursors;
(b)
According to modeling conducted by the division of administration in the department of public health and environment in 2023, oil and gas development is the leading anthropogenic source of ozone precursors in Colorado's ozone nonattainment areas and is responsible for forty-one percent of volatile organic compound emissions and forty-five percent of nitrogen oxide emissions;
(c)
The adverse impacts of oil and gas production affect both urban and rural communities, justifying investment in transit service improvements in communities across the state to reduce local pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions and benefit disproportionately impacted communities;
(d)
The oil and gas industry is the third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state;
(e)
In the 2019 legislative session, the general assembly passed House Bill 19-1261, which recognized that climate change adversely affects Colorado's economy, air quality, public health, ecosystems, natural resources, and quality of life and set science-based goals of reducing statewide greenhouse gas pollution, from 2005 levels, by twenty-six percent by 2025, fifty percent by 2030, and ninety percent by 2050. Through Senate Bill 23-016, enacted in 2023, the general assembly updated these goals to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 with interim reduction goals of sixty-five percent by 2035, seventy-five percent by 2040, and ninety percent by 2045, measured against 2005 statewide greenhouse gas pollution levels.
(f)
According to the "Colorado Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap 2.0", published by the Colorado energy office in February 2024, current policy and future commitments through 2026 alone are unlikely to achieve the state's 2025 and 2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction goals without further actions to reduce emissions associated with transportation, and the roadmap's list of near-term actions necessary to meet those goals includes policies and programs that expand and increase public transit service, passenger rail service, and ridership;
(g)
Reducing vehicle trips by encouraging the use of public transit helps to lower ozone-forming and greenhouse gas emissions. According to "An Update on Public Transportation's Impacts on Greenhouse Gas Emissions", published by the national academies of sciences, engineering, and medicine in 2021, Colorado transit agencies operating in Denver, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Greeley, and Pueblo collectively reduced six hundred twenty-four thousand nine hundred forty-two metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2018.
(h)
Policy directive 1610.0, published by the Colorado department of transportation and effective May 19, 2022, estimates twenty-three metric tons of greenhouse gas emission reductions for every one thousand additional vehicle-revenue-hours of new transit service delivered by a zero-emission vehicle and eighteen metric tons for every one thousand additional vehicle-revenue-hours of new transit service delivered by a diesel-powered vehicle;
(i)
According to the "Zero Fare for Better Air 2023 Evaluation Report", published by the regional transportation district on November 30, 2023, the two-month zero fare for better air program resulted in a twelve percent increase in ridership and a total reduction of nine million fourteen thousand three hundred seventy vehicle miles traveled, two thousand five hundred eighty-three pounds of volatile organic compounds, two thousand three hundred eighty-five pounds of nitrous oxides, and six million one hundred sixty-one thousand seven hundred seventy-two pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, which demonstrates a direct relationship between increased transit ridership and reduced air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions;
(j)
Numerous studies have found that, in addition to the direct impact on pollution due to replacing individual vehicle trips with trips on transit, there are large additional impacts that come from the indirect effect that transit has on enabling more dense land use near transit stops and stations, which reduces trip lengths and increases the share of trips taken by walking, bicycling, and using transit. For example, "An Update on Public Transit's Impacts on Greenhouse Gas Emissions", published in 2021 by the national academies of sciences, engineering, and medicine, found that the indirect impacts of transit increased the emission reductions by an amount more than seven times larger than the direct reductions.
(k)
To mitigate some of the adverse environmental and health impacts of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions caused by oil and gas operations, it is necessary, appropriate, equitable, and in the best interest of all Coloradans to impose fees on oil and gas produced in the state.
(2)
The general assembly further finds and declares that:
(a)
In order to incentivize, support, and accelerate the electrification and availability of public transit and thereby reap the environmental, health, business, and operational efficiency benefits of electrification and wider availability of public transit, it is necessary, appropriate, and in the best interest of the state to create a clean transit enterprise that can provide specialized remediation and other services that help public transit providers fund the construction of the charging infrastructure needed to support electrification, the acquisition of electric motor vehicles, and the remediation services described in section 43-4-1204;
(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 through incentivization, support, and acceleration of the electrification of public transit in rural and urban areas throughout the state and through the implementation of the remediation services described in section 43-4-1204;
(c)
The enterprise provides impact remediation services when, in exchange for the payment of clean transit 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)
Making grants or loans or providing rebates to fund the acquisition of clean, quiet, and cost-efficient electric motor vehicles for use in transit fleets and the construction of charging infrastructure that supports the use of such electric motor vehicles for public transit and thereby:
(A)
Improving transportation options for fee payers and the general public, making transit more attractive to new or infrequent users, and reducing personal motor vehicle emissions; and
(B)
By making transit more attractive, reducing traffic congestion, which allows more timely and efficient retail deliveries, further reduces emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gas pollutants from motor vehicles, and reduces and mitigates the adverse environmental and health impacts of such emissions;
(II)
Contributing in a unique and targeted way to the implementation of the comprehensive regulatory scheme required for the planning, funding, development, construction, maintenance, and supervision of a sustainable transportation system; and
(III)
Providing additional remediation services to offset impacts caused by fee payers as may be provided by law;
(c.5)
The enterprise provides the remediation services described in section 43-4-1204 in exchange for payment of the production fees for clean transit, which are used to partially mitigate the impacts of oil and gas operations on the environment through the implementation of actions related to public transit, including investment in public transit to achieve the level of frequent, convenient, and reliable transit that is known to increase transit ridership by replacing car trips with bus and rail trips;
(d)
By providing remediation services as authorized by this section, the clean transit enterprise engages in an activity conducted in the pursuit of a benefit, gain, or livelihood 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 clean transit retail delivery fee imposed by the enterprise as authorized by section
43-4-1203 (7)
and the production fee for clean transit are:
(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 specified in this section; and
(II)
Collected at rates that are reasonably calculated based on the impacts caused by fee payers and the cost of remediating those impacts;
(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 clean transit 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)
; and
(g)
The addition of the production fee for clean transit continues to serve the enterprise's primary business purposes set forth in section 43-4-1203 (3)(a). If the addition of the production fee for clean transit combined with the clean transit retail delivery fee is estimated to result in the collection of fees and surcharges that exceed one hundred million dollars in the enterprise's first five fiscal years, the board shall adjust the fees, lower the fees, or stop collecting the fees in order to not collect fees or surcharges that exceed one hundred million dollars in the enterprise's first five fiscal years, which five-year period, for the purpose of section 24-77-108, ends on June 30, 2026. Therefore, the enterprise, originally created in section 43-4-1203, is in compliance with section 24-77-108.
Amended by 2024 Ch. 184,§ 1, eff. 5/16/2024.
Amended by 2023 Ch. 153,§ 8, eff. 7/1/2023.
Added by 2021 Ch. 250, §52, eff. 6/17/2021.
L. 2021: Entire part added, (SB 21-260), ch. 1451, p. 1451, § 52, effective June 17.