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Policy Act, Oct. 8, 1997, at 4, available at <br />http://www.mms.govleppdlcompliance/reportslcegmemo.pdf (last viewed April 27, 2008). <br />Indeed, the impacts of climate change to Colorado are and will be significant. In his <br />Climate Action Plan issued in November 2007, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, Jr., summarized: <br />Global warming is our generation's greatest environmental challenge. The scientific <br />evidence that human activities are the principal cause of a warming planet is clear, and <br />we will see the effects here in Colorado. But the seeds of change are also here in <br />Colorado, in our scientific and business communities, and in each of us individually. <br />This Colorado Climate Action Plan is a call to action. It sets out measures that we in our <br />state can adopt to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 20 percent by 2020, and <br />makes a shared commitment with other states and nations to even deeper emissions cuts <br />by 2050. <br />Why is this important? For Colorado, global warming will mean warmer summers and <br />less winter snowpack. The ski season will be weeks shorter. Forest fires will be more <br />common and more intense. Water quality could decline, and the demand for both <br />agricultural and municipal water will increase even as water supplies dwindle. <br />See Colorado Climate Action Plan (November 2007), attached as Exh. 1. <br />The Colorado Climate Action Plan details the present and future impacts of climate <br />change to this state. Some of these impacts are indirect, caused by "the displacement of millions <br />of people living in coastal areas, thawing of arctic ecosystems and accelerated loss of usable <br />lands to deserts." Id. at 7. Critically, the Colorado Climate Action Plan states that "the direct <br />risks to the state are very serious." Id. These "direct risks" are numerous, including current <br />observations of shorter and warmer winters, with thinner snowpack and earlier spring runoff, <br />with less precipitation overall, and more of that precipitation falling as rain, not snow. Id. <br />Droughts are longer, and there are more wildfires "burning twice as many acres each year than <br />before 1980." Beetle infestations are now "[w]idespread" and there is also a "[r]apid spread of <br />West Nile virus." Id. In addition to these observed impacts, "[i]n the coming decades, scientists <br />project that Colorado and neighboring western states will see": <br />APPEAL OF E SEAM METHANE DRAINAGE WELLS PROJECT, APRIL 28, 2008 <br />PAGE 4