Energy, data center debates set to kick off in the Colorado legislature this week

Welcome to another week at the state Capitol, where lawmakers will begin publicly debating how much they want data centers built in the state.

On Thursday, House Bill 1030 will be in the House’s Energy and Environment Committee, officially kicking off the session’s data center war.

This bill would give tax breaks to eligible data centers — 100% exemptions from sales and use taxes for 20 years, to be precise. To qualify, a company would have to commit to $250 million in data center investments and to creating a certain number of jobs, among other things.

A more-or-less competing bill, which has not yet been introduced, would require data centers to match their energy consumption with renewable energy credits, according to a January draft of the proposal. That bill, which is backed by environmental groups, will start in the Senate.

The clean energy bill is backed by Sen. Cathy Kipp, a Fort Collins Democrat. Another of her bills, Senate Bill 2, will be in that chamber’s Transportation and Energy Committee on Wednesday. That proposal would require utility companies to provide a minimum amount of electricity to lower-income Coloradans at marginal cost.

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Committee work is picking up generally this week, and bills are starting to hit the floors of the House and Senate.

Here’s what else is happening in the Colorado legislature this week. Also, a semiregular reminder that floor plans can change on the fly, and bills scheduled for floor debates may roll over into later in the week.

Monday

The Senate is set to debate several bills on the floor, including Senate Bill 9. That measure would allow state tax authorities essentially to preserve a nonprofit’s tax-exempt status, should the federal government target that group. The bill passed out of its first committee last week with unanimous support.

In the House, lawmakers are scheduled for an initial voice vote on House Bill 1058, which would give some compensation to minor youth who are used in content creators’, well, content.