Colorado § 24-92-302 - Legislative declaration.

§ 24-92-302. Legislative declaration.

(1) The general assembly hereby finds and declares that:

(a) The energy industry in Colorado is undergoing a historic transformation to address threats posed by climate change, which includes efforts to diversify capacity, promote the development of renewable and other clean, non-carbon generation sources, and electrify major segments of the state's economy;

(b) These developments will require massive investments of resources from the state and public utility companies, which will ultimately be paid by residents through future taxes and utility bills;

(c) The safe and cost-effective delivery of these projects is vital to the public health and welfare of residents and the economic security of the state, and critical to ensure that adequate power is provided to Colorado homes and businesses;

(d) Deficient planning of these resources can result in escalating utility bills and dangerous power outages if power supply is not maintained in sufficient capacity to meet future, growing demand. For these reasons, appropriate measures must be taken to protect future energy investments, promote successful construction delivery, and prevent errors in the planning and delivery of new facilities.

(e) One of the most challenging aspects of energy facility construction is ensuring that projects are supported by capable craft labor resources. It is essential for these projects to be staffed by a reliable and adequate supply of properly trained workers in all applicable trades and crafts required for these facilities.

(f) Energy sector public works projects built by or for the use of regulated utilities, like traditional public projects, are often built for the collective benefit of all citizens and residents of Colorado. These projects are often funded through public tax dollars or through the collective resources acquired through Colorado utilities billing customers. Like tax dollars, these resources acquired through utility rates should demand a higher standard of public benefit back to the consumers and communities from which the resources were collected.

(g) Extensive research shows that prevailing wage laws are effective in attracting better qualified workers to projects and promoting critically needed investments in apprenticeship training required to ensure adequate craft labor skill levels and productivity. Likewise, the use of registered apprenticeship training programs and project labor agreements has been proven to be the most effective strategy for providing high-level skills training and ensuring needed qualification credentialing for workers in the construction industry.

(h) By providing project owners, developers, and contractors unique and unparalleled access to an adequate supply of well-trained, highly skilled craft labor in affected project areas, craft labor standards promote successful project delivery goals, including quality, safety, timeliness, and cost-efficiency, by providing effective quality control over craft labor supply capabilities, as well as risk avoidance to prevent disruptions and other labor performance problems caused by inadequate craft labor capabilities;

(i) For these reasons, incorporating prevailing wage standards and apprenticeship requirements and encouraging project labor agreements for public utilities and other energy facility planning and construction is necessary to protect and promote the public's interest in these projects;

(j) By incorporating well established quality contracting procurement tools, such as prevailing wages, apprenticeship utilization requirements, and project labor agreements into our energy resource planning, the state of Colorado will have the capabilities to better protect its energy investments, improve construction project delivery in the energy sector, fully document and evaluate the directives set forth in section 40-2-129, and create a clear set of standards for enforcement to achieve the law's intent for the benefit of Colorado workers and the communities where they live;

(k) Use of these quality contracting tools is already incorporated into Colorado's traditional public procurement law as prevailing wage and apprenticeship policies adopted in sections 24-92-115 (7) and part 2 of this article 92. In addition, project labor agreements have been successfully used in Colorado in the past for projects in the energy sector and the broader private sector construction industry. These agreements have also been upheld by the courts, for example, in Bldg. & Constr. Trades Council v. Associated Builders & Contractors of Mass./R.I., Inc., 507 U.S. 230, 231 (1993), due to their ability to help secure reliable craft labor staffing and promote timely project delivery.

(l) Due to their benefits in promoting successful project delivery in projects assisted by federal grants and tax credits, the federal government is strongly encouraging the use of these quality contracting tools generally, and especially in the energy sector, where major federal assistance programs under the recent federal "Inflation Reduction Act of 2022", Pub.L. 117-169, are providing approximately three hundred seventy billion dollars in funding to promote clean energy sources across the country.

(2) The general assembly further finds and declares that because cost-effective, safe, and efficient generation, transmission, and distribution systems in the energy sector are vital to the state's economy and the public welfare and safety, quality control and risk avoidance measures are necessary to ensure that the construction of projects necessary for these systems are adequately staffed by properly trained and qualified craft labor personnel.

Source: L. 2023: Entire part added, (SB 23-292), ch. 247, p. 1349, § 1, effective January 1, 2024.