New measures will further the state’s work on a wide range of areas, including transportation, clean energy, building energy performance, carbon management, and just transition for coal communities
DENVER - Friday, June 6, 2025 - Continuing his comprehensive approach to leading on climate change, Governor Polis recently signed into law a series of bills that further bolster Colorado’s commitment to keeping energy costs down while cutting greenhouse gas emissions, creating an equitable transition to a low-carbon economy, and preserving Colorado’s beloved natural resources and landscapes.
“We continue moving forward to improve air quality, reduce pollution, protect Colorado’s future and save people money with low-cost clean energy. With these new laws we are moving in the right direction and I’m proud of this year’s progress. I appreciate all the legislators who worked on these new laws, and especially Colorado’s state agencies who will be implementing them for Coloradans,” said Governor Jared Polis.
The Colorado Energy Office (CEO), the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA), the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) will be responsible for implementing many of these new laws.
These new laws cover a wide range of sectors and issues. These include transportation, strategic growth, building energy performance, electric grid readiness, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, carbon management, renewable energy, a just transition for communities transitioning from coal production, agriculture, and water security.
“While the changing federal landscape has created hurdles for states across the country in addressing the climate crisis, Governor Polis and our legislature are making sure Colorado continues to prioritize concrete progress on this vital issue,” said Colorado Energy Office Executive Director Will Toor. “The laws passed this session will make it easier for Coloradans to embrace emissions-reducing actions in a cost-effective way. Thank you to the Governor and our legislators for their work.”
Many of these bills continue to build on the vision laid out in the state’s second version of its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Pollution Reduction Roadmap, which was released in 2024. For example, HB25-1269 adds technical support and simplifies the process for buildings to comply with Building Performance Colorado, which is an important strategy to achieve emission reductions from large buildings; and SB25-206 provides much needed budget flexibility for the work of the Energy Office, which allows the office to continue making investments in Colorado homes and businesses to adopt clean energy, EV and energy efficiency solutions in an increasingly uncertain federal environment. When it comes to sustaining Colorado’s nation-leading adoption of electric vehicles, HB25-1267 will ensure retail EV charging provides a consistent and reliable customer experience across Colorado. HB25-1273 is an important step forward to enable more infill housing to be built within our cities, helping to reduce transportation and building emissions.
In addition, SB25-030 aims to expand transportation options like transit, biking, and walking to reduce climate pollution, save Coloradans money, and improve public health.
"Gov. Polis and the legislature made bold progress this year by prioritizing bike, pedestrian, and transit projects in both state and local transportation planning," said Acting CDOT Executive Director Sally Chafee. "By strengthening coordination and closing key gaps in our multimodal infrastructure, we can better meet the real-world transportation needs of Coloradans and deliver safer, cleaner, and more efficient choices for everyone."
Making sure the state is climate resilient and safeguarding Coloradans’ health were also a focus in this legislative work.
“This legislative session marks a bold leap forward in protecting both community health and our environment,” said Jill Hunsaker Ryan, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. “From tackling air pollution and building decarbonization to supporting environmental justice and water security, Colorado is demonstrating that smart climate policy is also smart public health policy. We’re proud to help lead this work for the well-being of all Coloradans.”
Carbon management continues to be an important opportunity to address emissions. To support that effort, the Governor signed SB25-182, which tackles carbon associated with greenhouse gas emissions arising from the production, construction, use, and end-of-life of products or systems used in the construction of buildings, roads, and other infrastructure. The Governor also signed HB25-1165, which takes important steps to further enable underground carbon storage in Colorado, as well as deployment of geothermal energy projects for electricity production and heating and cooling.
“The Colorado General Assembly and Governor Polis worked together to advance landmark legislation to protect wildlife and their habitats, enable more sustainable water resource management, and facilitate nation-leading, sustainable energy production that carves the path to meeting the goals of Colorado’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Roadmap,” said Dan Gibbs, executive director, Colorado Department of Natural Resources. “I want to thank the bi-partisan support and legislative champions of our bills as well as the numerous Coloradans and stakeholders who took time out of their day to support many of our legislative priorities.”
In addition, these new laws include key provisions that support the state's agricultural work, which is essential for Coloradans in both urban and rural areas.
“Colorado’s continued investment into soil health will have far reaching benefits for agricultural resilience and farmers’ bottom lines,” said Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture Kate Greenberg. “Soil health practices enhance both production and environmental outcomes and help Colorado producers maintain the health of their operations, which is vital to our state.”
The following is a summary of newly signed climate and clean energy legislation in Colorado:
Strategic Growth and Transportation
HB25-1267 Support Statewide Energy Strategies: Allows the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment to use a portion of the EV Fund within the Colorado Energy Office to create and enforce rules for publicly available electric vehicle charging stations to protect Colorado consumers. The law also allows CDPHE to use an existing fund to conduct environmental equity and cumulative impact analyses.
HB25-1273 Residential Building Stair Modernization: Requires municipalities with populations of 100,000 or more that are serviced by an accredited fire protection district, fire authority, or fire department to adopt a building code, or amend an existing building code, to allow up to five stories of a multifamily residential building that satisfies certain conditions to be served by a single stairway by December 1, 2027. This will give communities more flexibility in embracing climate-friendly strategic growth by paving the way for more housing to be built in smaller infill lots, driving density, and walkable development.
SB25-002 Regional Building Codes for Factory-Built Structures: Expands the State’s factory-built structure oversight program to include climatic and geographic conditions and categorizes these factors in rules by region under the purview of the State’s program. Determines that after the State Housing Board adopts these rules about any activity to start or complete the construction or installation of a factory-built nonresidential structure, a factory-built residential structure, or a factory-built tiny home, the state plumbing board, the state electrical board, and the state fire suppression administrator do not have jurisdiction over and their rules do not apply to a factory-built structure. Stipulates that a county shall not impose more restrictive standards on factory-built structures than on-site built structures.
SB25-030 Increase Transportation Mode Choice: Requires CDOT, metropolitan planning organizations, and local governments to create a transit and active transportation project inventory that identifies gaps in transit, bicycle, and pedestrian infrastructure. It also requires those groups to identify new projects that would significantly increase transit, biking, and walking by improving connectivity and safety. The inventory must be completed by July 1, 2026.
SB25-161 Transit Reform: Makes several changes to the Regional Transportation District (RTD) statute including: modernizing RTD’s mission to align with statewide goals to increase transit ridership, increase service, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions; developing performance measures to evaluate its progress in aligning with state climate goals; and improving and advertising its EcoPass program. The law also creates an independent accountability committee that will discuss and make recommendations on topics including the governance structure and compensation of the board, representation of local governments, and workforce retention.
Environment, climate, and air quality (broadly)
HB25-1280 Advanced Leak Detection Technology Rules: Requires the public utilities commission to adopt new rules related to gas pipeline safety and repair, including rules related to advanced leak detection technology. The bill requires the commission to adopt the rules regarding advanced leak detection technology on or before November 1, 2025. This bill will both improve air quality and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
SB25-206 Long Bill Appropriations: Provides additional funding for the Colorado Energy Office. This money will help ensure sufficient state funding to carry out key regulatory and decarbonization work, including energy planning, clean heat initiatives, and electrification projects. This is essential to make sure Colorado hits its 2030 climate targets, achieves lowest possible cost energy, doesn’t fall behind on pollution reduction goals, and properly faces other challenges exacerbated by federal efforts to hinder clean energy progress.
Emissions from the built environment
HB25-1269 Building Decarbonization Measures: Improves Building Performance Colorado, the statewide energy use benchmarking and performance standard requirement for owners of large-scale buildings greater than 50,000 square feet. This bill simplifies compliance and relaxes penalties of 2026 targets, and creates a building decarbonization enterprise to provide resources for technical assistance to ensure buildings meet 2030 and future targets. Furthermore, it clarifies that buildings that are in compliance with qualifying local building performance programs will be deemed compliant with the state standard, and that buildings may use 2019 as a baseline year, rather than 2021. This bill also provides clarification and structure for the process to set 2040 performance standards at the air quality control commission.
SB25-039 Agricultural Buildings Exempt from Energy Use Requirements: Further clarifies an existing exemption for agricultural buildings, which are not required to participate in Building Performance Colorado. Owners of designated agricultural buildings are exempt from the energy use collecting and reporting requirements required for other large-scale buildings. The bill defines an agricultural building as a building or structure used to house agricultural implements, hay, unprocessed grain, poultry, livestock, or other agricultural products or inputs. This provides relief and clarity for the agricultural industry while maintaining the important goals of building decarbonization set forth in the Building Performance Colorado program.
Carbon management and geothermal energy
HB25-1165 Geologic Storage Enterprise & Geothermal Resources: Continues Colorado’s efforts to enable effective and safe carbon sequestration and geothermal development. It does so by creating a process for long-term stewardship of carbon dioxide (CO2) storage sites through a dedicated fund funded by CO2 storage operators. This will ensure carbon storage facilities are safe long into the future. It also advances our state’s climate goals, relieves state taxpayers of a burden to manage these sites, and provides certainty to operators. In addition, the bill streamlines geothermal development in a manner consistent with Colorado’s values. This is done by minimizing costs, ensuring permitting is fit to purpose, advancing safety and public protections, and clarifying regulatory authority across state agencies while ensuring prior geothermal operations such as our treasured historic hot springs remain vibrant into the future.
SB25-182 Embodied Carbon Reduction: Expands access to low-carbon construction materials for buildings, roads, and other infrastructure by making the use of lower carbon materials eligible for property-assessed clean energy financing (known as CPACE), and utilizing the existing Colorado Industrial Tax Credit Offering (CITCO) to make strategic investments in low-carbon material production. Both measures will support the commercialization and scaling of lower-carbon construction materials, and support local Colorado companies and startups working on manufacturing next generation products.
Renewable energy and utilities
HB25-1040 Adding Nuclear Energy as a Clean Energy Resource: Amends Colorado's statutory definitions of "clean energy" and "clean energy resource" to include nuclear energy. This change makes nuclear energy projects eligible for clean energy project financing at the county and city levels and makes it more explicit that qualifying retail utilities may use nuclear energy to meet the state's clean energy targets.
HB25-1096 Automated Permits for Clean Energy Technology: Streamlines the voluntary solar permitting and inspection grant program. The grant program provides funding for the adoption and implementation of automated permitting and inspection software which can reduce the time and costs associated with permitting solar, both for customers and local governments. The bill clarifies that funding from the grant program may be used by a recipient for eligible expenses for up to three years after the grantee implements the automated permitting and inspection software.
HB25-1177 Utility Economic Development Rate Tariff Adjustments: Makes modifications to utility economic development rates to provide more long-term certainty for electric-powered businesses to come to Colorado and grow. Explicitly states that the use of economic development rates does not relieve a utility of its greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction obligations. This provides more long-term certainty and stability for businesses to come to or expand in Colorado and advance Colorado’s load growth and beneficial electrification goals, while ensuring utilities continue on path for GHG reductions.
HB25-1292 Transmission Lines in State Highway Rights-of-Way: Clarifies that a transmission developer can co-locate high voltage transmission lines within a state highway right-of-way, according to a process developed by rule by the Department of Transportation. This clarification and the CDOT rulemaking process will allow faster, more efficient, and sustainable use of existing right of way rules for building transmission lines needed to achieve the state’s climate goals, unlock access to new economic opportunities for rural Colorado, and expand access to affordable, reliable electricity.
SB25-299 Consumer Protection Residential Energy Systems: Clarifies the definition of a solar sales company and provides consumers with key disclosures when entering into an agreement with the consumer for the purchase or lease of a system or a power purchase agreement for a system. This bill makes the process of going solar more transparent and fair.
Just transition for workers and communities and environmental justice
SB25-037 Coal Transition Grants: Requires the state’s Office of Just Transition to prioritize awarding funding to certain defined coal transition communities experiencing socioeconomic impacts of coal closures and for opportunities for economic diversification, local community input, feasibility studies of specific proposed projects, and needs assessments.
SB25-055 Youth Involvement in Environmental Justice: Expands the state’s Environmental Justice Advisory Board to include two youth seats. The board, located within CDPHE, advises the environmental justice ombudsperson, develops recommendations related to adverse environmental effects on disproportionately impacted communities, and supports the implementation of a grant program to finance environmental mitigation projects.
Agriculture, water, and natural lands
HB25-1009 Vegetative Fuel Mitigation: Allows a fire protection district or a metropolitan district providing fire protection services to create a program to mitigate the presence of dead or dry plant material that can burn and contribute to a fire on privately owned property within a district.
HB25-1115 Water Supply Measurement & Forecasting Program: Authorizes the Colorado Water Conservation Board to lead the management of a statewide snowpack measurement program that will allow for the collection and dissemination of highly accurate, valuable water supply data to better manage our state’s water resources and maximize beneficial uses of these resources. By using new technologies to boost Colorado’s snowpack monitoring capabilities to improve water forecasting, the state will be better able to respond to drought and climate-driven water challenges.
HB25-1215 Redistribution of Lottery Fund: Follows up on the creation of the nation-leading Outdoor Equity Fund at Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW). This bill makes further adjustments to the lottery distribution by growing the real and potential funding for the Outdoor Equity Fund. It also increases funding for the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office and creates an Outdoor Recreation Management and Infrastructure Fund at CPW. All of these entities do important work in the conservation space and this funding will support outcomes associated with Colorado’s Outdoors Strategy, which advances climate resilient conservation.
HB25-1332 State Trust Lands Conservation & Recreation Work Group: Advances the ability of the Colorado State Land Board’s (SLB) to expand the portfolio of revenue generating activities for the state with their trust lands, particularly regarding conservation, climate resilience, biodiversity, and low-impact recreation. This is being done by creating a working group to develop recommendations to the SLB. State trust lands provide approximately 10% of the state’s renewable energy, and the bill includes the renewable energy industry as part of the working group to help ensure that perspective is represented. The focus on conservation, climate resilience, and biodiversity can advance natural climate solutions on SLB land.
SB25-049 Continue Wildlife Habitat Stamp Program: Indefinitely continues this land conservation program that is funded through individuals purchasing Colorado wildlife habitat stamps. Proceeds from this program promote work outlined in the state’s natural and working lands plan as well as natural climate solutions through conserving habitats.
SB25-283 Funding Water Conservation Board Projects: Provides significant funding for climate resilience and drought mitigation programs through this annual Colorado Water Conservation Board Water Projects Bill. This year, the bill includes $69 million in funding for a wide variety of programs. Of this total, some of the high impact climate-related investments include: $6 million to support groundwater sustainability in the Republican River basin, where climate change has contributed to water shortages and inter-state compact issues; $1.4 million for a statewide study to determine potential water savings from turf removal programs; $2 million to better measure snowpack and forecast runoff; and $5 million for the Wildfire Ready Watersheds program to address post-wildfire hazards, increase resiliency at landscape scales, enhance ecological structure and function, and protect water quality.
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