What We Learned in the Statehouse
By BILL RITTER Jr. , MARK SANFORD, BILL RICHARDSON and PHIL BREDESEN
With America’s governors gathering in Washington this weekend to discuss their ailing state budgets and other common problems, the Op-Ed editors asked four departing state leaders to single out difficulties their successors face — and to provide guidance on how to conquer them.
Re-energize the Economy
By BILL RITTER Jr.Re-energize the Economy
By BILL RITTER Jr.
Fort Collins, Colo.
NEARLY every governor in America is wrestling with budget issues, making unenviable choices on which services, programs or salaries to reduce or eliminate, and deciding whether higher taxes and fees are viable. Most governors are hemmed in by state requirements that the budget be balanced without deficit spending. And I know how daunting — and all-consuming — the task can be. What I hope does not get lost in this effort is the governors’ responsibility to help develop a clean energy economy in America, one that will help create jobs, wean us off foreign oil and protect the environment.
Building this new economy starts with understanding how clean energy legislation can create jobs. During my four-year term in Colorado, I signed 57 pieces of clean energy legislation. In 2007, for example, we doubled the proportion of energy in the state that is required to come from renewable sources to 20 percent by 2020. In 2010, we increased that to 30 percent for our biggest utility. As a result, Colorado now ranks fourth among the 50 states in its number of clean energy workers per capita, and 1,500 clean energy companies call our state home — an 18 percent increase since 2004. Wind- and solar-energy companies that have built factories and opened offices in Colorado have brought in thousands of new jobs.
Governors should also be strong advocates for natural gas, the cleanest-burning fossil fuel, while still ensuring that drilling and production are environmentally sound. In Colorado, we tangled with the energy industry, insisting that tighter regulations were needed to protect air, water, wildlife and communities. But with new rules in place, we have proved that protection and production can coexist. Last year we capped our clean energy work with a bill that required shutting down several dirty, inefficient coal plants and replacing them with cleaner energy fuels, principally natural gas.
President Obama’s goal to produce 80 percent of America’s energy from clean sources by 2035 is absolutely achievable. But as Washington ponders its next move on energy legislation, governors can and should lead the way.
