The Honorable Jennifer Bacon and the Honorable Jenny Willford
Colorado House of Representatives
Colorado General Assembly
RE: Letter of Concern House Bill 23 -1294
Dear Representatives Bacon and Wilford:
The Organizations must express serious concerns regarding the Proposal and most directly with the proposed cap on vehicle miles traveled. The Organizations support a healthy landscape as this is a critical component of a high-quality recreational experience for everyone and all natural resources. We have worked towards this goal for more than 50 years and supported the development of cleaner vehicle standards in a wide range of efforts. This has been through engagement with federal managers on huge challenges on federal lands across the State, such as Sage Grouse planning and development of forest level plans and through our partnerships with CPW, we are approaching these comments.
It is from this perspective that we must express grave concern about the Proposal, as the Proposal appears to be applying generalized State standards to issues that should be more appropriately dealt with more locally or on an issue specific discussion. It has been our experience that while landscape level efforts may be well intentioned, they often create more issues than they resolve. It is with this perspective the Organizations are genuinely concerned with the proposal attempt to manage mobile sources of emissions and most specifically capping of vehicle miles traveled in an attempt to address air quality. It has been our experience that this type of standard is a VERY slippery slope in terms of impacts and often these types of standards have impacts that were never intended. In our discussions with partners in California standards such as those proposed have immediately impacted recreational access and recreational activity. While these impacts to recreation have never been able to address any of the actual causes of the poor air quality, the impacts to recreation can be significant. Often recreational activity is seem as a lower level concern when caps such as this are applied.
We are concerned that often air quality issues in Colorado are driven by factors that are unrelated to any activity in Colorado. Everyone here is familiar with poor air quality in the state as a result of wildfires that may be occurring hundreds or thousands of miles outside the state. We are concerned that any Colorado led initiatives will be doomed to fail as the source of these challenges may not even be occurring in the State.
The Organizations thank you for this opportunity to address our concerns regarding the Proposal and most specifically the proposed cap on vehicle miles traveled to address challenges that may simply be unresolvable with the scope of the Proposal. Please feel free to contact Scott Jones, Esq. at 518-281-5810 or via email at scott.jones46@yahoo.com or Chad Hixon at 719-221-8329 or via email at chad@coloradotpa.org if you should wish to discuss these matters further.
Sincerely,
Scott Jones, Esq.
Authorized Representative COHVCO
Executive Director CSA
Chad Hixon
Executive Director
Trails Preservation Alliance (TPA)
Marcus Trusty
President/Founder
Colorado Off Road Enterprise (CORE)