Colorado's green future
Colorado has had to cut $2 billion from its state budget since the Great Recession hit in late 2008. The fiscal year for 2010-11, which starts July 1st, will see further cuts from the state budget of over $200 million. Education has seen the biggest cuts, along with many building and expansion projects to various state facilities and public infrastructure being delayed.
The slow recovery is largely down to ongoing weakness in the financial, construction and real estate sectors of Colorado’s economy. To make up for the lower-than-expected increase in tax revenues, the state has not increased the education budget by 6% as it usually does each year and has suspended tax breaks.
In the next financial year, much of the state’s $18 billion budget will need to be paid for with tax revenue as stimulus money begins to run out. But, even as the stimulus funds disappear, new federal grants are being utilized by the state to develop industries for the future, laying the ground-work for a high-tech, high tax revenue, low-carbon technology sector.
When Colorado’s state legislature recently signed into law a bill requiring that 30% of the state’s energy needs be met with renewable energy by 2020 they created a market for sustainable energy. This bolstered a green industry that, in the past decade, has already seen injections of over $700 million in venture-capital investment and $300 million from federal grants, according to Colorado news provider the Denver Post.
Jobs directly related in the environment and renewable energy have grown by 30%, but still represent only 17,000 in a workforce of over 2 million.
However, Martin Shields, an associate economics professor at the Colorado State University, told Colorado news media that what’s interesting isn’t the current number of jobs in renewable energy and environmentally friendly industries, but rather the rate at which its grown and continues to grow.
“What's a more interesting story is where we are going,” Shields told the Denver Post. “With Vestas building a wind-turbine factory and solar companies like Abound and Ascent, the state is becoming more high profile.”
According to a report issued by Headwater Economics in Bozeman, Montana, the growth, even through the recession, is due in large part to incentives and policies put in place by the state in order to attract such investment. By placing green technology in focus, the state has also encouraged innovation.
For example, in El Jebel a sustainable energy company, Clean Energy Collective, has built a solar panel field over a disused landfill site and has connected the field to the state’s power grid. Individuals who don’t want unsightly solar panels on their roof or in their garden, can buy a solar panel and by doing so offset their energy costs because they’re contributing to the power grid rather than consuming from it, or consuming less, depending how many solar panels one buys.
According to the company’s founder, Paul Spencer, their El Jebel field has already sold out and they’re investigating new sights to expand. The project is called an energy-share and is already generating interest on a statewide level. In addition, the solar field, located in a rural area, is generating local employment in communities otherwise overlooked by traditional industry.
The future for Colorado’s economy may therefore be one in which the state becomes a leader in the area of renewable energy and green technology, as the ‘New Energy Economy’ of Governor Ritter’s administration intended.
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Colorado Report
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Colorado's green future
Colorado’s economy suffered through the downturn like every other state in the country, but as the national economy enters a period of recovery, which started towards the beginning of the year, the state continues to falter, while using much-needed federal grants to lay the groundwork for future, greener, industries.
Colorado has had to cut $2 billion from its state budget since the Great Recession hit in late 2008. The fiscal year for 2010-11, which starts July 1st, will see further cuts from the state budget of over $200 million. Education has seen the biggest cuts, along with many building and expansion projects to various state facilities and public infrastructure being delayed. Read more
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