2008 Legislative Priorities
About CoPIRG
Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG) is an advocate for the public interest on consumer and health care issues. CoPIRG’s mission is to deliver persistent, result-oriented activism that protects consumers, encourages a fair, sustainable economy, and fosters responsive government.
Curb Energy Costs
Natural gas bills doubled last winter and have increased every year for the last three years, while electricity rates continue to increase.
CoPIRG:
• Supports HB-1107 (Levy) directs covered utilities to spend at least 2% of their sales revenues on cost-effective energy efficiency programs for their customers starting in 2010, programs such as low-cost energy audits, rebates on high efficiency appliances, and cost reductions for compact fluorescent light bulbs.
• Supports HB 1270 (Kerr) removes covenants and deed restrictions that limit the use of solar energy devices to include other energy efficiency measures, defined to include wind-electric generators, shade structures, shutters, attic fans, evaporative coolers, energy-efficient outdoor lighting devices, and retractable clotheslines.
• Supports SB 08-078 (Sonnenberg & Renfroe) requires the standards used by the State Historical Society and the cities of Central, Black Hawk, and Cripple Creek, to distribute grants from the State Historical Fund to allow the use of energy efficient materials and technologies, as long the appearance the historic property is not affected.
Use of Credit Scoring in Determining Insurance Rates
The information in an insurance credit score is not derived from your driving habits (number of speeding tickets, number of accidents) or the number of homeowners' claims you've filed. It is derived from your credit report. The use of credit reports for insurance ratemaking brings up two fundamental problems. First, no actuarial study has fully linked credit reporting to insurance risk. The industry claims a correlation, but cannot show statistical proof that meets actuarial tests. Second, while the factors used in deriving a credit score may appear on face to represent good or bad credit and then that correlation that the industry claims, analysis by the Center for Economic Justice shows that some of the companies may instead be using credit scoring as a way to subvert civil rights laws and redline lower-income and minority Americans.
CoPIRG:
• Supports HB-1143 (Butcher/Groff) bans credit scoring in determining home and auto insurance rates.
Making Higher Education More Affordable
Students spend an average of $900 a year on textbooks, which is 20% of tuition at an average university and half of tuition at a community college! And the prices keep going up. Textbook prices have increased at four times the rate of inflation since 1994!
CoPIRG:
• Supports SB-073 (Tupa/Kefalas) which requires publishers to proactively disclose book pricing information, allowing professors to make better decisions on behalf of students.