HB 25-1241
Fiscal Note
Legislative Council Staff
Nonpartisan Services for Colorado’s Legislature
HB 25-1241: PUBLIC ACCESSIBILITY OF EMISSIONS RECORDS
Prime Sponsors:
Rep. Marshall; Garcia
Sen. Cutter; Kipp
Published for: House Energy & Environment
Drafting number: LLS 25-0673
Fiscal Analyst:
Matt Bishop, 303-866-4796
matt.bishop@coleg.gov
Version: Initial Fiscal Note
Date: March 3, 2025
Fiscal note status: The fiscal note reflects the introduced bill. This analysis is preliminary and will be
updated following further review and any additional information received.
Summary Information
Overview. The bill requires certain polluting facilities to make records of their emissions publicly available.
Types of impacts. The bill is projected to affect the following areas on an ongoing basis:
State Revenue State Expenditures
Appropriations. For FY 2025-26, the bill requires an appropriation of $4.7 million to the Department of
Public Health and Environment.
Table 1
State Fiscal Impacts
Type of Impact
Budget Year
FY 2025-26
Out Year
FY 2026-27
State Revenue $0 $0
State Expenditures (General Fund) $4,656,566 $4,345,457
Transferred Funds $0 $0
Change in TABOR Refunds $0 $0
Change in State FTE 32.7 FTE 32.0 FTE
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March 3, 2025 HB 25-1241
Summary of Legislation
The Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) regulates the amount of pollution
allowable from stationary sources, which include buildings and facilities. The bill requires the
owner of a stationary source to keep records of the amount and nature of pollutants they emit
and make the records publicly available on their website. They may redact confidential business
information. CDPHE must link to polluters’ records on its website. A violation of the reporting
requirement is subject to a civil penalty.
Assumptions
Although the regulatory activities of the Air Quality Control Commission are typically funded
from the Stationary Sources Control Fund, the fiscal note assumes that the expenditures
identified in this bill require General Fund due to their magnitude and the long-term balance of
the cash fund.
State Revenue
Public disclosure of emissions records is expected to lead to discovery of additional violations of
emission limits by stationary sources. To the extent that this leads to additional settlements or
civil penalties, state revenue will increase. This revenue, which is classified as a damage award
and not subject to TABOR, has not been estimated.
State Expenditures
The bill increases state expenditures in CDPHE by about $4.7 million in FY 2025-26 and
$4.3 million in FY 2026-27 and subsequent years. These costs, paid from the General Fund, are
summarized in Table 2 and discussed below.
Department of Public Health and Environment
The bill increase expenditures in the department to conduct rulemaking, build and maintain a
webpage, investigate complaints, and conduct additional enforcement actions against polluters.
Staff
CDPHE staff requirements include 0.5 FTE in FY 2025-26 only to conduct rulemaking and 0.3 FTE
annually to solicit and verify website information from stationary source owners, based on the
assumption that staff will spend 15 minutes on average identifying each company’s website for
about 2,300 companies.
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March 3, 2025 HB 25-1241
Public disclosure of emission is expected to increase the number of complaints made to CDPHE
about companies’ compliance. Under current law, CDPHE is required to investigate each
complaint that is not clearly frivolous. The 2,300 companies represent about 13,000 active
stationary sources, and the fiscal note assumes an additional 1,500 complaints received each
year. Evaluating each complaint, investigating as necessary, and taking appropriate enforcement
actions requires 28.0 FTE per year. Standard operating and capital outlay costs are included.
IT Support
Given the number of websites CDPHE must link to, the department requires an estimated
80 hours of programming at $133 per hour to create a searchable web platform for its website.
Legal Services
CDPHE requires 6,950 hours of legal services in FY 2025-26 and 6,600 hours in subsequent years
to conduct rulemaking and to pursue additional enforcement actions. Legal services are
provided by the Department of Law at a rate of $133.74 per hour.
Employee Benefits
Pursuant to fiscal note and Joint Budget Committee policy, centrally appropriated costs for bills
involving more than 20 FTE are appropriated in the bill, rather than through the annual budget
process. These costs include employee insurance and supplemental employee retirement
payments.
Table 2
State Expenditures
Department of Public Health and Environment
Cost Component
Budget Year
FY 2025-26
Out Year
FY 2026-27
Personal Services $2,862,171 $2,813,334
Operating Expenses $36,864 $36,224
Capital Outlay Costs $193,430 $0
IT Support $10,640 $0
Legal Services $929,493 $882,684
Employee Benefits $623,968 $613,215
FTE – Personal Services 28.8 FTE 28.3 FTE
FTE – Legal Services 3.9 FTE 3.7 FTE
Total Costs $4,656,566 $4,345,457
Total FTE 32.7 FTE 32.0 FTE Page 4
March 3, 2025 HB 25-1241
Technical Note
The bill requires owners of stationary sources to report all emissions, but most emissions
regulations specify a minimum threshold for each pollutant that is subject to oversight. The
fiscal note assumes that emitters will not be required to report on emissions that are not subject
to existing air quality regulations.
There is a statute of limitations for CDPHE to pursue enforcement actions against violations of
air quality regulations that begins when it knowns or should have known of the violation. If the
bill’s record disclosure requirements constitute a notification to CDPHE of potential emissions
violations, it would drive significant costs for the department to investigate and pursue
enforcement actions. While the fiscal note assumes that CDPHE is not required to review
companies’ public records, the bill does not clarify if the reporting requirements constitute
notice of potential violations or not.
Effective Date
The bill takes effect 90 days following adjournment of the General Assembly sine die, assuming
no referendum petition is filed.
State Appropriations
For FY 2025-26, the bill requires a General Fund appropriation of $4,656,566 to the Department
of Public Health and Environment, and 28.8 FTE. Of this, $929,493 is reappropriated to the
Department of Law, with an additional 3.9 FTE.
Departmental Difference
The Department of Public Health and Environment, the Department of Law, and the Office of
Information Technology estimate that the bill requires $24.3 million and 169.9 FTE in FY 2025-26
and $27.1 million and 247.0 FTE in FY 2026-27. These estimates include the need to:
conduct research and complex rulemaking over two years, including auditing all existing air
quality regulations;
construct a centralized repository for searching for operator emission data; and
proactively monitor and inspect companies’ public emissions records, essentially requiring to
inspect every stationary source within the statute of limitations for emissions violations.
The fiscal note instead assumes that CDPHE will not need to review or revise existing regulations
as part of its rulemaking and that the least-cost IT solution is a website interface. Most
significantly, the fiscal note assumes that CDPHE additional enforcement workload is driven by
its requirements to respond to complaints under current law, rather than driving proactive
investigations. Page 5
March 3, 2025 HB 25-1241
State and Local Government Contacts
Law Public Health and Environment
The revenue and expenditure impacts in this fiscal note represent changes from current law under the bill for each
fiscal year. For additional information about fiscal notes, please visit the General Assembly website.