Bill Summary
SB26-003 expands Colorado’s “Battery Stewardship Act” to cover end-of-life electric and hybrid vehicle propulsion batteries. It creates a state-approved, provider-funded system for collection, transportation, processing, reuse, repurposing, and recycling, with new labeling, reporting, and recycler certification requirements.
- Expands battery stewardship requirements to include “propulsion batteries” used to power an electric or hybrid vehicle.
- Requires propulsion battery providers to participate in and finance a battery stewardship organization beginning August 1, 2028, and prohibits sales or distribution in or into Colorado without participation.
- Requires a propulsion battery stewardship plan by April 1, 2028, and every 5 years thereafter, including safety training and fire-response protocols, funding methods, collection approach, service providers, and tracking.
- Requires plans to achieve a recycling efficiency rate of at least 60 percent.
- Imposes detailed labeling requirements and data access expectations, including chemistry identification, hazardous substances, safety and recall information, and access to state-of-health and state-of-charge information.
- Directs the Solid and Hazardous Waste Commission to adopt rules by July 1, 2027 to create a process for certifying “qualified battery recyclers.”
- Prohibits landfill disposal of propulsion batteries and requires end-of-life management to follow the bill’s “battery management hierarchy” starting August 1, 2028.
Position: Oppose
This bill starts with a real problem, but it solves it the Colorado way: build a new regulatory machine first, ask questions later, and send the bill to everyone through higher costs and more red tape. No point-of-sale fee does not mean no cost. It usually just means the cost gets buried somewhere else.
EV battery end-of-life handling can be hazardous. We should take safety seriously. But this bill goes far beyond basic safety and into top-down control of an entire supply chain.
Why I Am Taking This Position
1) It hardwires policy messaging into statute. The legislative declaration says electric vehicles are “crucial tools” for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and that “many more electric vehicles will need to be deployed in Colorado.” That is not end-of-life stewardship. That is industrial policy.
2) It creates a state-controlled gate for doing business. On and after August 1, 2028, a propulsion battery provider cannot sell, offer for sale, or distribute propulsion batteries or vehicles with a propulsion battery in or into Colorado unless it participates in a stewardship organization with an approved plan. When government controls the gate, smaller players and new entrants usually pay the price first. The big guys can lawyer up. The rest of us wait.
3) Too much is left to rulemaking, with unclear burden and rural access. The bill directs certification rules for “qualified battery recyclers,” including multiple criteria and periodic reassessment. Some of that may be reasonable. But the bill does not spell out how cost, feasibility, and access will be balanced, especially outside the metro areas.
4) The labeling and battery data requirements are heavy. The bill mandates permanent labels with specific technical information and requires access to battery condition data. If the goal is safety, that needs to be narrowly tailored. As written, it reads like Colorado trying to regulate battery design and data systems well beyond end-of-life handling.
5) It imposes broad obligations before practical infrastructure is proven. The bill prohibits landfill disposal and requires unwanted propulsion batteries to be managed through specific channels starting August 1, 2028. It also requires stewardship organizations to retrieve propulsion batteries after notification and ensure responsible end-of-life management “in a timely and safe manner.” That sounds great on paper. It can become delays, confusion, and compliance traps in the real world.
Counties and local fire districts end up as the shock absorbers when state programs do not work as advertised. The bill includes website safety materials for firefighters and first responders, which is good. But it still builds a statewide system without clear guardrails on cost growth or a clear showing that narrower safety enforcement would not solve the problem. This will likely be another massive, unfunded mandate to local governments.
Call to Action – What You Should Do!
Contact your state senator and state representative and ask for a narrower approach: address safety and fire risk without building a new statewide compliance gate that raises costs and squeezes competition.
