This legislative session Democrats are fighting for public safety and to save people money. An ambitious clean-air and conservation agenda can help achieve those goals while moving us closer to controlling our own energy destiny – but our state legislators must act now.

In the past couple of months, we’ve been reminded how climate change, air and water pollution and dirty energy can upend our lives. From the tragedy of the Marshall Fire at the end of last year to the recent assault on Ukraine, we can see the dire need for the U.S. to build a clean-energy economy that cuts costs and pollution – and builds security and stability.

No Coloradan is safe without healthy air and water. Pollution is a daily attack on public health and safety, especially in Black, Latino, Indigenous populations and in communities of color.

Coloradans are already paying the price for air and water pollutants, which harm our quality of life and drive up health care costs. The Clean Air Task Force projects that Colorado will see nearly $870 million in monetized health damages due to diesel pollution alone in 2023. These impacts are concentrated in communities of color.

Last summer was the worst year in recent history for ozone pollution on the Northern Front Range. In 2021, Colorado issued alerts for unhealthy ozone levels on 65 out of 93 days during “ozone season” – the highest number of alerts since the state started tracking them a decade ago.

And our water isn’t immune from dangerous poisons, either. PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) are synthetic toxic chemicals that last a long time and are toxic even at extremely-low concentrations. They accumulate in our bodies and are highly mobile, leading PFAS to spread quickly throughout the environment.

These daily injustices, coupled with recent, headline-grabbing disasters, have Coloradans calling for leadership and change.

Our leaders have an important opportunity in front of them. To seize it, they should focus on policies that clean up our transportation, industrial and oil and gas sectors, as well as the environment.

Investments in clean air and conservation will also make a critical difference. Gov. Jared Polis wisely called for a six-month pilot program for fare-free transit during ozone season, $150 million for electric school buses, funding to retire and replace more than 500 of the dirtiest trucks on the road, and investment in Colorado’s air pollution agency – all to achieve immediate pollution reductions.

And they shouldn’t forget about our land and water, where we need smart investments, increased funding for conservation necessities and updating policy – particularly around water – to ensure that there’s plenty of water in our rivers and that the water that comes out of them is safe to drink.

No state can solve climate change or geopolitics alone – but Colorado plays a critical leadership role on the national stage, where other states and the federal government have a history of following our lead. I urge our leaders to act to cut costs and pollution – and build security and stability.

Kelly Nordini is CEO of Conservation Colorado, the state’s largest environmental-advocacy organization.