Colorado officials won’t pass rules cutting greenhouse gas emissions from large manufacturers until 2023, once again disappointing environmental advocates who say mandatory targets for 2025 and 2030 are slipping out of sight. Last spring, the Air Pollution Control Division had rulemaking for the next round of industrial emissions cuts planned for 2022. Environmental groups say […]
Environmental Defense Fund
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, Equity, News, Politics and Government
First-in-the-U.S. rules that give oil and gas industry leeway in slashing emissions OK’d in Colorado
Colorado air regulators have adopted a sweeping set of rules to slash methane emissions from oil and gas operations, including a controversial, first-in-the nation program giving industry a freer hand in determining how to cut pollution. The “intensity program,” under which operators will have to reduce emissions by set percentages based on the amount of […]
Posted inClimate, Energy, Environment, News
Colorado agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But first they exempted the biggest polluters.
When Colorado air pollution regulators started writing rules to cut 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions by heavy industry, the first thing they had to do was exempt the four largest polluters. The original law says that cement plants and steel plants, which in Colorado are currently emitting up to a million tons a year […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Politics and Government, Water
Congressional infrastructure deal brings $8B in climate, water projects to the West
Colorado will benefit from billions of dollars in climate change and water projects in the $1.2 trillion infrastructure investment bill passed by the U.S. House late Friday, conservation groups said over the weekend, with some of the money shoring up drought-stretched obligations to the Colorado River Compact. More than $8.3 billion in water projects alone […]
Posted inNews, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Happy sad birthday, America
It was my son’s fifth birthday. We were having a party at the neighborhood pool with some of his friends. We asked my daughter, his older sister, to help organize some games for the kids to play in between swimming and cupcakes. The error became immediately obvious as sister seized the opportunity of her newfound […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: It’s time to recommit to controlling methane emissions to combat climate change
Coloradans have been at the forefront of curbing methane waste and pollution from oil and gas operations and their impact on public health and climate change. So it should come as no surprise the Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and Rep. Diana DeGette are playing lead roles in advancing federal methane policy. Methane, a […]
Posted inClimate, Energy, Environment, Health, News
Ambitious plan for cap-and-trade greenhouse gas cuts rejected by Colorado Air Quality Control Commission
An ambitious proposal by environmental groups for a market-based cap-and-trade program delivering faster cuts to Colorado greenhouse gas emissions was rejected Friday afternoon by the state Air Quality Control Commission, which called it intriguing but too complex and expensive to execute now. Commissioners voted 7 to 1 to reject a petition from the Environmental Defense […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government
First-in-the-nation rule to slash methane emissions from Colorado oil and gas operations relied on compromise
A rule clamping down on air pollution from key devices used by the oil and gas industry – which drew support from environmental groups and industry – was unanimously adopted by Colorado air quality regulators Thursday. The first-in-the-nation rule requires the installation of non-emitting controllers on all new oil and gas operations and the retrofitting […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government
Colorado regulators target tiny oil field device that’s a big contributor to greenhouse gas, ozone pollution
Colorado air regulators and oil industry engineers have been on the hunt for fugitive chemical emissions from drill sites and storage facilities for years, and they are now closing in on what may be “the last of the low-hanging fruit” – pneumatic controllers. The Air Quality Control Commission is set to take up a proposed […]
Posted inClimate, Energy, Politics and Government
An environmental group claims 70% of Colorado’s greenhouse gas emissions come from oil and gas. But that’s in dispute.
In what is becoming a running skirmish between environmental groups and the Polis administration over how to curb the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, a new analysis calculates that 70% of all the gases come from oil and gas operations and calls for the shutdown of the sector by 2030. The figures used in the […]