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Colorado lawmakers are considering whether the state’s Public Utilities Commission should stay open for business.

The commission is set to terminate, or sunset, on Sept. 1 unless the General Assembly votes to reauthorize the agency, which regulates energy and water utilities, gas pipelines, telecommunications, motor transport and railroads.

Jamie Valdez, Colorado transportation and energy policy advocate for the group GreenLatinos, said in addition to home energy costs, decisions made by the commission affect air quality in places like Pueblo, home to some of the state’s largest industrial polluters.

"Pueblo already has increased rates of asthma, COPD and cardiovascular disease when compared with state averages," Valdez pointed out. "And so we really need to protect our clean air, because without those protections it won’t stay clean for long."

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Legislation introduced this month would reauthorize the commission until 2037. Valdez noted the measure would allow the commission to direct utilities like Xcel Energy to shift from "business as usual" fossil fuel investments to clean sources like wind and solar to achieve the state's 100 percent renewable energy goal for electricity by 2040. The reauthorization would also allow the commission to promote electrification in homes and businesses.

Valdez acknowledged in the past, the commission has put the interest of investor-owned utilities over communities, which resulted in Latinos and other marginalized groups being exposed to higher levels of pollution. He pointed to a measure passed in 2021 to ensure the effects of the commission's decisions on low-income, rural and minority communities are minimized.

"Senate Bill 21-272 directs the PUC to consider these inequities in all of its work and work to correct and address those historic inequities," Valdez added.

Renee Chacon, cofounder of the group Womxn from the Mountain, said a strong public utilities commission can help protect families in places like Commerce City, which hosts over 1,000 industrial polluters, including the Suncor refinery. She argued the commission should create a pathway to meet the energy needs of future generations.

"How are we looking to protect those that are most vulnerable?" Chacon asked. "And how are we not only just meeting our goals but modernizing grids to be an infrastructure that can supply generations for the next decades?"