House Finance Panel Advances Bill to Ease Building-performance Deadlines, Create Decarbonization Enterprise

House Finance Committee members voted 7-6 to advance House Bill 12-69, a measure that eases near-term compliance requirements for Colorado’s building performance standards and creates a fee-funded building decarbonization enterprise to provide technical and financial assistance to covered buildings.

Supporters said the bill keeps the state on track to reduce building-related greenhouse gas emissions while giving owners more time, clearer rules and new resources to implement efficiency and decarbonization projects.

Representative Valdez, the bill’s sponsor, told the committee the bill converts the 2026 interim target from a mandatory deadline into a voluntary goal, removes duplicative compliance requirements for buildings already subject to local standards and establishes an enterprise to direct fees into technical assistance for building owners. “We’re creating an enterprise that we can actually have the fees that people are paying go into that will then help those very people to implement the projects that we are asking them to do,” Valdez said.

Nut graf: The legislation affects Colorado buildings larger than 50,000 square feet, which sponsors estimate number roughly 8,300 across the state. Sponsors and the Colorado Energy Office (CEO) said the bill is intended to make it…