Colorado air quality regulators are moving to tighten oversight of small sources of air pollution, which critics contend have gotten a free pass under the previous policies of the state Air Pollution Control Division. Those policies were the target of a federal whistleblower complaint by division employees and an investigation by the state’s Attorney General’s […]
Garry Kaufman
Posted inClimate, Environment, News
Colorado air pollution director Garry Kaufman reassigned after conflict of interest investigation
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has reassigned its top air pollution control official to a newly-created job in the wake of a special investigator’s probe confirming his failure to report a potential conflict of interest. Garry Kaufman, who has led the Air Pollution Control Division since 2017 and previously worked on air […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, News
Whistleblowers raised valid concerns about Colorado air pollution monitoring, probe finds, but problems were unintentional
Whistleblowers attacking the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division for conflicts of interest and improper modeling of potential pollution sources raised valid concerns in complaints to the EPA Inspector General, but the state’s violations were not intentional and officials did not falsify data, according to a new report by the state Attorney General’s Office. The report […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, Health, News
Former mining company attorney regularly granted a past client exemptions as Colorado’s head of air pollution control, records show
The director of the state’s Air Pollution Control Division repeatedly signed off on exemptions to pollution limits for the world’s largest gold miner, Newmont Corp. — a company that he previously represented as an attorney in private practice, according to state records. Air Pollution Control Division Director Garry Kaufman approved the exemptions for Newmont’s Cripple […]
Posted inEnvironment, News
Environmental groups demand Polis remove Colorado Air Pollution Control director, call for independent investigation
A Colorado environmental coalition Thursday demanded that Gov. Jared Polis remove the director of the state Air Pollution Control Division, who is called out in a whistleblower complaint alleging the state endangers public health by unlawfully approving permits to pollute the air. The coalition also asked the state attorney general’s office to launch its own […]
Posted inEnvironment, Health, News
Colorado air pollution control managers ordered staff to falsify data and approve permits “at all costs,” whistleblowers say
State air pollution control managers endangered the health of Coloradans by unlawfully approving noxious gas permits for industry without federally mandated modeling or monitoring, according to a whistleblowing complaint filed Tuesday by technical employees inside the agency. Three state employees claim in a complaint to the U.S. EPA Office of Inspector General that their leaders […]
Posted inBusiness, Energy, Environment, Health, News, Politics and Government
Colorado oil and gas emissions rules begin to tighten, but gaps open over what is monitored, by whom and where
Colorado is moving to tighten air emissions from a range of oil and gas activities – including hydrofracturing or fracking – with a general consensus among industry, environmental and community groups. In two days of testimony before the state’s Air Quality Control Commission there was general support for proposed rules covering fracking and drilling, internal […]
Posted inBusiness, Energy, Environment, Health, News, Politics and Government
Colorado must cut half of its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. It will lean on oil and gas to do it.
Some of the biggest cuts in Colorado’s greenhouse gas emissions will come from the electricity and transportation sectors, but hitting the state’s goal of a 26% reduction in emissions from 2005 levels in the next five years will depend on curbing oil and gas emissions, according to a state analysis. “To meet these goals, we […]