GREEN GROWTH: FROM RELIGION TO REALITY - Sustainia

Chapter 5utilities buyback of homegrown electricity. All of thesemeasures benefit the average ratepayer.Amd 37’s popular support thus came not only fromthe progressive, environmentally-minded part of thepopulation, but also from a variety of independent andconservative rural sources across the state. The consumer-friendlyrebates and rate caps may have helpedto render the RPS even more acceptable to the generalpublic. This state-wide public support eventually led toColorado's first RPS.3.2 Research, development and green industriesColorado has a somewhat longer history in the area ofgreen innovation and industry than in green policy per se.Colorado has long provided an encouraging environmentfor the research, development and commercialization ofenergy technologies, fostering many successful renewableenergy and energy efficiency firms even before the state’slegislative move towards green growth. So it is not surprisingthat with new legislation offering even more incentivesto green industries, Colorado has become a hub for cleantech and has attracted global players like Vestas.Colorado houses multiple national laboratories, includingthe National Renewable Energy Laboratory(NREL), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,and National Center for Atmospheric Research,all of which contribute to research and development inclimate change mitigation technologies. These nationallaboratories are located very close to each other, as well asto three higher education institutions in Colorado. Thestate of Colorado has encouraged collaboration amongthese education and research institutions via memorandumsof understanding in order to ensure the rapidtransfer and commercialization of new technologies.A fourth national laboratory, the National Institute forStandards and Technology, is playing a leading role in establishmentof Smart Grid standards."The nurturing environment in Colorado saw manylarge and successful renewable energy and energy efficiencyfirms spring up in Colorado long before the keylegislations of the mid-2000s"The nurturing environment in Colorado saw manylarge and successful renewable energy and energy efficiencyfirms spring up in Colorado long before the keylegislations of the mid-2000s. For example, ArchitecturalEnergy Corporation, headquartered in Boulder, wasfounded in 1982; it generates $10 million annual salesby providing energy efficiency consulting and services(ASES 2009, 57). Since Governor Ritter's "New EnergyEconomy" program began to take off, green industrieshave been expanding rapidly. The research communityin Colorado directly helped the creation and growth ofnew firms. One example is AVA Solar Inc., a thin filmsolar panel producer with a new 500 worker, 200 MWcapacity factory developed at Colorado State Universitywith the support of NREL (ASES 2009).As early as 2007, the renewable energy and energy efficiencyindustries had generated $10.2 billion in revenueand hired 91,285 workers (Bezdek 2009, 47). During thesame year, the total revenue for the oil and gas industrywas $17.2 billion, and the industry employed 70,779workers (MacDonald et al. 2007, 55). Though green industriesgenerated less revenue than the oil and gas industry,it hired more workers.In addition to existing strengths in renewable energyand energy efficiency industries, Colorado also has agenerally attractive business environment, featuring lowcorporate and income tax rates and a highly educatedworkforce. According to Forbes, it is the fourth best placeto do business in the US (Badenhausen 2010). Once lowcarbonpolicies were in place and the state began to focuson green growth in earnest, it is no surprise that globalclean tech leaders like Vestas and its suppliers were attractedto Colorado.3.3 FundingColorado also benefited, at least in the short term, froma coincidental conjunction with federal funding trends.Green policy took off in 2007 and 2008 with incomingGovernor Ritter. Shortly thereafter, the global economicdownturn led to the passage of the US stimulus bill,the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).Since a meaningful percentage of ARRA funds were focusedon renewable energy and efficiency in both newand existing programs, the sudden influx of fundingfrom the federal government in areas like efficiency,weatherization, and renewable energy provided both asafety net for existing programs (which might otherwisehave been cut in the face of state budget difficulties) anda kick start for programs that would otherwise have beenslower or impossible to start, providing levels of fundinglarger and faster than those that states had envisioned forthemselves (Plant 2011).The corollary to this, however, is the potential challengefacing Colorado and other states as ARRA windsdown. Funding for many of these programs, such asweatherization, are expiring or being cut. The need to replacethem at the state level as the influx from the federallevel ebbs will be a huge challenge in the near future, andit is uncertain how effectively states will respond. An inabilityto find replacements could slow industry growthdown (Plant 2011).3.4 The Post-37 shift: turning opponents into alliesIn addition to the growth of its green industry sector,Colorado’s green policy support was ultimately strengthenedby the tolerance or active support of several criticalallies in the conventional energy industry, spurred by theconfiguration of policy proposed. In several cases, theimmediate outcomes of Amd 37 – which turned out tobe easier to achieve than utilities expected, and providedtangible benefits to rural plains voters – significantlyraised support for renewables and green policy, particularlyin the eastern plains counties.64