After surviving a three-hour floor debate in the house, where some legislators questioned global warming as a fact, House Bill 1164 was supported by world experts in a hearing before the Senate Local Government committee. These experts testified on the importance of cutting the state's global warming pollution and on Colorado's ability to meet its energy demand with solar power plants.

In response to earlier challenges regarding global warming, Environment Colorado arranged for Dr. Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder and lead author on the fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment, to appear at the bill's senate committee hearing.  Dr. Trenberth told the commitee that the Earth is suffering from a fever that would get worse if we failed to address its cause- including energy production. 

The committee also heard from Mark Mehos, Program Manager of the Concentrating Solar Power Program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden. He testified that Colorado has a vast solar potential and that solar power plants could provide the state with clean, abundant, power. In fact, using only a small fraction of the state's solar resources for solar power plants would allow us to meet half the state's current demand for electricity.

Solar power plants also offer great economic development potential for rural Colorado. A single plant could bring billions of dollars in private investment and hundreds of jobs.