The evidence is clear: It’s going to take laws and rules to make Front Range air safe to breathe again.
Colorado Air Quality Control Commission
Posted inOpinion Columns
Opinion: Colorado’s ozone policy exists between fantasy and reality
I had a strange feeling of falling back in time to the “Twilight Zone” TV series of the early ’60s as I read the charts that explain why it’s so hard to cut Colorado’s ozone. I’ll save you the trip to Wikipedia: “Twilight Zone” episodes included “fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, supernatural […]
Posted inClimate, Energy, News
Regional board to approve ozone action plan, but a Colorado coalition wants much more done
The northern Front Range’s newest plan to meet federal ozone-reduction mandates comes with a rare upfront admission that it won’t work. The Regional Air Quality Council, a nonprofit board of experts and local officials charged with writing the state’s ozone compliance plan, will decide Friday on the latest proposals for trimming the hazardous ground-level gas. […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, Health, News, Politics and Government
Report that oil field methane emissions are down by half is wrong, Front Range cities with own pollution monitors say
Air pollution from oil and gas operations is on the wane, the industry says. But communities along the Front Range — with their own air monitors — counter that they are finding repeated spikes of methane and other pollutants. “Ground-level methane monitoring shows no decline in levels,” Cindy Copeland, an air and climate policy advisor […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government
Colorado oil and gas companies said a 2019 state law would destroy them. That didn’t happen. But here’s what did.
The demise of the oil and gas industry in Colorado — predicted after the passage of legislation and regulations focused on protecting public health, safety and the environment — does not appear to be imminent. Plans for nearly 1,900 new oil and gas wells are before the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in 2022 […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government
Colorado air pollution regulators are so behind that they didn’t get around to a hearing on one company’s permit for 13 years
In March 2009, a Western Slope oil company filed an application for a state air emissions permit for its wastewater treatment facility. On Thursday, state regulators got around to holding a hearing on that permit — about almost 13 years behind schedule. “We are asking for the same thing we asked for 13 years ago, […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Outdoors
Colorado to strengthen plan to protect views at Rocky Mountain National Park, sidestepping Sierra Club lawsuit
Colorado will meet revised federal deadlines to strengthen regional haze plans that protect views in Rocky Mountain National Park and other western treasures, state officials and environmental groups say, sidestepping a new Sierra Club lawsuit demanding sanctions on Colorado and dozens more states. The Sierra Club lawsuit says the Environmental Protection Agency failed to enforce […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Environment, News
Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission rejects citizen petition to get faster clean trucks rules
The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission rejected a citizen petition demanding faster adoption of a clean truck fleet, saying state air pollution staff and trucking businesses need more time to adapt rules already launched by California and other states. A coalition led by Colorado GreenLatinos, the City and County of Denver, NAACP Colorado and more […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: A state mandate for zero-emission trucks is a matter of environmental justice
My community is tired of waiting for environmental justice. Too many members of my community have lived their entire lives in and around toxic air pollution. Too many times we have been told by this politician or that politician that they’ll clean up our neighborhood, or the air we breathe. I’m tired of waiting for […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News
Environmental coalition demands Colorado speed up clean truck rules, citing long delays in air pollution cuts
A coalition of Colorado environmental groups has filed a petition with the Air Quality Control Commission demanding they finish rules for cleaner trucks by the end of this year, saying they are harming Colorado residents through a series of delays in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and ozone. The AQCC should order staff at the Air […]