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Colorado Congressional delegates get earful from constituents

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Eric Galatas
(Colorado News Connection)

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Coloradans are giving their Congressional delegation an earful before they head back to the nation’s capital and resume work after Labor Day.

Representative Gabe Evans, R-Colo., one of four House Republicans to vote for the GOP’s signature tax and spending bill, recently met with local business leaders. The measure cuts Medicaid, food-assistance programs, and clean energy investments to help pay for Trump administration priorities including mass deportations and tax cuts.

Kelly Nordini, CEO of the group Conservation Colorado, said House Resolution 1 is one of the most anti-consumer bills in some time.

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Official photo of PROMO HIRES CROPPED Politician - United States Representative Gabe Evans (R) Colorado

United States Representative Gabe Evans (R) Colorado - public domain

"It’s going to have Colorado families paying higher utility bills, breathing dirtier air, and really bearing the cost of tax breaks for billionaires and big oil," Nordini contended.

Nordini pointed to the recent scrapping of plans to build a battery factory in Brighton, in the 8th District, which Evans represents, as a direct result of the budget bill's rollback of solar and wind incentives. The law also increases fossil fuel industry subsidies above the current $757 billion per year.

President Donald Trump campaigned on promises to ramp up oil and gas production and to end clean energy investments he claims amount to the federal government picking industry winners and losers.

Nordini noted Trump also campaigned on lowering prices but argued the loss of wind and solar capacity, which is the fastest and cheapest way to get energy onto the grid, will lead to even higher utility rates for consumers and businesses.

"By gutting and really saying everything but clean energy, the Republican budget bill threatens, here in Colorado, 9,600 clean energy jobs over just the next five years," Nordini explained.

The new law is also expected to create a $1 billion hole in Colorado’s state budget. Nordini believes members of Congress need to hear directly from the people they represent about how their work affects their daily lives.

"What does rising utility bills mean to them? What does impacts on their health care coverage mean to them? What does it mean when we have a harder time cleaning the air in Colorado, their kid’s asthma?" Nordini outlined. "It’s important for members of Congress to hear that."