State Senate Republicans advanced a bill Monday that would suspend all work underway in Colorado to implement the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan until after the U.S. Supreme Court lifts a stay put in place in February.

Senate Bill 157, sponsored by state Sens. John Cooke, R-Greeley, and Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, would also extend legislative review of the state plan. The bill is part of a multi-pronged attack on the Clean Power Plan being mounted by Republicans in Colorado and around the country. The bill passed its second reading on a party-line voice vote. It faces steep opposition in the Democratic-controlled House.

Opponents have rolled out a stream of arguments against the power plan. They have said it would reshape the energy industry to an unprecedented degree, unfairly tilt the market in favor of renewable energy, raise rates for energy consumers and hurt businesses. They also have said the plan fails to take into account the regional nature of the energy business and that it seeks to answer a problem — man-made climate change — that they believe doesn’t exist.

“This is about three branches of government. This is about not dumping all the rules we have in place and all of a sudden having mass chaos and smog,” said Sonnenberg on the Senate floor. Nothing in the plan would aim to relax any of the state’s clean air laws. “We already have regulations and rules in place that quite frankly have put Colorado in the forefront of clean air and clean water,” Sonnenberg continued. “When that third branch of government, the judicial branch of government, finds and makes the ruling that says there will be a stay, let’s put the brakes on this instead of thumbing our nose at the Supreme Court.”

The Clean Power Plan was written by the Environmental Protection Agency and is aimed at limiting emissions from power plants that cause climate change. It aims mainly to phase out coal. The plan sets timelines and emissions targets — to cut the nation’s carbon footprint 30 percent by 2030 — but leaves it to individual states to decide how best to reach those targets.

The orchestrated national campaign launched against the plan recalls the offensive that came in response to the 2010 Obamacare health reform law. Industry groups and Republican state attorneys general, including Colorado’s Cynthia Coffman, filed the lawsuits against the Clean Power Plan that led to the Supreme Court stay. Pro-fossil fuel national activist groups with state chapters have run advertisements and published letters to the editor. Model bills have been introduced in state legislatures to slowdown implementation.

The hope is that time will deliver court victories against the plan or election victories that will result in an EPA less concerned with climate change.

Last week, conservative lawmakers on the Colorado Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee — Rep. Bob Rankin, R- Carbondale, and Sens. Kevin Grantham, R-Canon City, and Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs — voted to “defund” the clean air division of the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment, stripping out of the budget some $8.5 million. They were hoping to stop the division from doing work related to the Clean Power Plan.

Democrats have responded to the moves with exasperation. They argue the effort to meet the plan’s goals will force Colorado to move ahead in the race to power the future and they add that attempts to stymie development and implementation of a state plan will only doom Colorado to accepting a less-well-crafted federally developed plan.

“I’m not afraid of clean air. I want clean air,” said budget committee member Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, during committee debate last week. “Clean power is our future. Dirty power is our past.”

During floor debate Monday on Senate Bill 157, Sen. Matt Jones, D-Louisville, introduced two amendments that would have undercut the bill and attached a statement to it recognizing the validity of predominant climate-change science. The amendments failed.

“We need to stop saying human-caused climate change is not occurring,” Jones said. “Ninety-seven point five percent of scientists agree climate change is happening and that humans have a role in that. To get to 97.5 percent of scientists agreeing, it’s basically fact. I know people don’t want to believe that, but that’s what the scientist say. And that’s the problem with this bill. It takes the planning out of the hands of people who know about this and puts it into our political hands.”

“This (bill) isn’t about global warming,” Sonnenberg protested.

Assistant Majority Leader Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, argued that climate science was already biased and flawed.

“This is a pretty good example of how science gets tied into political science, because claims that these power-generation units are an example of how humans actively contribute to climate change — that is predicated upon so many presumptions that frankly aren’t a part of this bill and aren’t a part of good science,” he said.

The EPA filed briefs defending its plan with the Washington D.C. circuit court Monday. Friday is the deadline for supporters to file backup briefs. The D.C. court will hear arguments in June on the case and hand down a ruling later this year.

With reporting by Ramsey Scott.

— john@coloradostatesman.com

— ramsey@coloradostatesman.com