May 25, 2012 10:48 PM UTC

Colorado Conservation Voters and Colorado Environmental Coalition Announce Merger

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• by: ColoradoConservationVoters

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Last night the Colorado conservation community shared some exciting news: Colorado Environmental Coalition (CEC) and Colorado Conservation Voters (CCV) have decided to join together and merge their organizations.

http://youtu.be/hq1rNooegqQ

The idea of CEC and CCV merging has been talked about on and off for a number of years.  However, 2012 presented unique opportunities and now is the perfect time to form a new organization combining the strengths of both groups – CEC’s strong policy, advocacy and organizing work, with CCV’s focus on electing pro-environment candidates to public office and holding them accountable.

This is a tremendously exciting opportunity and will create a strong, unified and powerful voice to champion Colorado’s land, water, air and people.  CEC and CCV have a long and successful history of collaborating on the key environmental issues of the day, working collectively at the State Capitol, and forging strategic partnerships, like:

• Playing a central role in establishing the strongest public health, drinking water and wildlife protections from oil and gas drilling in the country.
• Ensuring that more than three million acres of wilderness will stay forever wild.
• Setting a statewide renewable energy standard, then increasing it to 30% and making it one of the strongest in the nation.
• Passing more than 130 different conservation bills at the state legislature in the past six years on a host of environmental issues ranging from water efficiency to air quality to energy efficiency to transit.

Pete Maysmith, current Executive Director of Colorado Conservation Voters, will lead the new organization.  Elise Jones, CEC’s Executive Director for over twelve years, will be leaving to run for political office.

In the months ahead, we will regularly update the community on the progress of the merger, including the name for the new organization and other exciting developments.  

http://coloradoconservationvot…