Arizona
Nothing to report at this time.
Colorado
Denver is planning to eliminate all-natural gas lines in new construction starting in 2024 and in all commercial buildings starting in 2027. Also, the State of Colorado will probably come out with a statewide electrification plan in the near future that would effectively ban gas lines in new construction.
So one congressman from Weld County tried to introduce a bill in the house, HB21-1034, that would not allow any city from restricting access to natural or propane gas as a source of energy in new construction. This bill was defeated in the House Energy & Environment committee by a vote of 7-5 which was strictly on party lines, Democrats against the bill and Republicans for the bill.
There was a lot of testimony on this bill on both for and against it. Two members of the RMHPBA gave testimony in favor of this bill, Lesley Short of Lehrer Fireplaces and Mark Humphreys of Fireplace Warehouse. We would like to thank them for their effort and time in doing the testimony. Both gave great presentations.
This will be the first of many fights in the battle to retain our right to sell gas appliances in the future. We will be working with the AGA and the NPGA in the future, and we hope we can count on our members and non-members to join us in this fight to protect our businesses.
Thank you to 31 Colorado members who acted I forgot to write this in the memo. We had 31 members respond to email we sent out about the HB21-1034. Great job to all the members that responded!
New Mexico
SB 8: Allows state and local environmental improvement boards to adopt emissions standards that are more stringent then federal air quality rules.
Utah
SB 5: In Utah, Governor Spencer Cox just signed SB-5, that keeps $500,000.00 in their existing budget for 2021 to replace old wood burning units with new gas or electric units in certain areas of the state. This bill preserves energy choice for the citizens of Utah, prohibiting the state from banning fuel options, including natural gas and propane. Utah joins Arizona and Tennessee in prohibiting local communities from mandating forced electrification. HPBA and most of the HPBA Affiliates are supporting similar legislation in over a dozen states.
Wyoming
Senate Bill SF 152: This bill would ban cities, town, and counties from not allowing access to natural gas, propane gas, or electricity as energy sources. It states local jurisdictions from stopping any energy hook ups that are furnished by a public utility including gas. RMHPBA and HPBA are OK with the language, except RMHPBA is asking for clarification because the way it’s worded, it looks like it’s limiting “propane utility service” to “provided by a public utility.”