A previously derailed federal lawsuit challenging extreme, costly and possibly unattainable energy standards for larger buildings in Colorado has been brought back to life — and that’s an encouraging development. It could give the state’s hard-pressed building owners more clarity and, ideally, some relief from extreme rules being imposed at a reckless pace.

Colorado’s apartment owners, hotel operators and real estate developers had sued the state as well as the City and County of Denver last year over their respective sets of new green-energy rules — the state’s Regulation 28 and the city’s Energize Denver agenda. Regulation 28, authorized under a 2021 state law, requires owners of buildings larger than 50,000 square feet to reduce energy usage or greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2030, compared to 2021 levels. Energize Denver requires energy reduction for buildings over 25,000 square feet, with a goal of achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 for existing buildings. Denver, at least, recently extended its compliance deadlines in the face of the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs argued both sets of rules violate the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act by creating efficiency standards for large buildings that effectively would ban the use of natural gas-powered appliances like stoves, heaters and water heaters. The federal act reserves to the federal government the power to make such determinations in regulating energy efficiency.

The plaintiffs contend the new energy efficiency regulations would be impossible to meet without fully electrifying their buildings, costing enormous sums of money. In some cases it would be both economically and technologically impossible, especially in older apartment buildings that were built with hot water or steam heating systems.

Last spring, a federal judge dismissed the suit on the grounds that the plaintiffs hadn’t presented evidence of actual harm from the new standards but rather had made only speculative arguments. The plaintiffs amended their complaint to include data making the case the harm they predict would materialize, so the lawsuit was reinstated last week by U.S. District Judge Regina M. Rodriguez.

As we’ve noted here before, the rules are unrealistic and could incur extraordinary costs for Colorado’s economy. Derailing them in court, if possible, may be the only way at this point to spare Coloradans — not just building owners, but also a broad swath of our economy and society — a lot of regulatory misery.

All of which once again underscores the preposterous premise of so much of Colorado’s energy policy. With Gov. Jared Polis at the helm of state government and his pliant fellow-Democrats in charge at the legislature, our state has been on a mad dash to abandon a balanced, all-of-the-above energy portfolio that sensibly taps both renewable and fossil fuels.

Instead, Colorado has been forced to follow the administration’s ballyhooed “roadmap” to a carbon emission-free future. And it threatens to lead the whole state off a cliff.

Again, we have to ask, Why the rush?

The near-consensus among scientists is that human activity is likely accountable for some of the additional heat as global temperatures have crept upward. What’s also unassailable is the U.S. — having long ago transitioned away from heavy industry and toward the use of cleaner-burning natural gas for heating and power generation — contributes a relatively small share of the world’s heat-trapping emissions. By contrast, heavy-industry behemoth China, for example, emits more than twice as much greenhouse gas as the U.S.

In that light, even the most radical curbs on carbon emissions in Colorado, with its modest population of 6 million, will have no measurable impact on global climate at all. Yet, those same radical policies will wreak havoc with our state’s ability to attract investment, create jobs and provide livable, affordable housing.

On such a lopsided tradeoff, the choice seems clear.

the gazette editorial board