COLORADO: Polis pushing mandate on employers to regulate workers’ commutes; rulemaking bypasses legislature.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) is proposing to implement new regulations that would force companies in the Denver Metro/North Front Range area with more than 100 employees to create “Employee Transportation Reduction Plans (ETRP).” This is part of the “ambitious” 2019 law that requires a 26% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 and a 90% reduction from 2005 levels by 2050.

CDPHE is a cabinet-level state agency that falls under the purview of Governor Polis. The new regulations would be implemented under the authority of the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC), which is controlled by Polis appointees.

“That’s the most alarming part of what they’re trying to do,” Patrick McConnell, Coalitions Director for the Colorado chapter of Americans for Prosperity told Complete Colorado. “Legislating through the rule-making process is not the way to go about this. It needs transparency and accountability. This is something they should put through the people’s elected representatives.”

If Polis is bypassing the people’s elected representatives — Democrats, mostly — it’s because he knows his plan would get them unelected.