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 […]
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Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: The Air Quality Control Commission needs to actually control air quality
It is a right for us to have clean air to breathe and not have to plead and fight for it with state agencies. It’s our right to walk outside our homes and breathe fresh air and not inhale ozone and other volatile organic chemical pollutants. It is time we hold the Colorado Department of […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, Health, News
Colorado groups threaten to sue EPA for delaying penalties on Front Range ozone pollution failures
Colorado environmental groups are warning the EPA they will sue the federal agency for missing a deadline to place northern Front Range counties in the “severe” category for ozone pollution. Under Clean Air Act laws, the EPA should have placed nine Front Range counties in a more restrictive category requiring more pollution cuts by Jan. […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: The 3 biggest contributors to our sickly air: wildfires, fracking, and auto emissions
As if we don’t already have enough to worry about, the quality of the air we breathe is rapidly slipping well beyond agreed health standards. From Colorado Springs to Fort Collins, low-level ozone is causing stinging eyes and throats, chest pains, coughing, and breathing difficulty. We notice this in particular when winds from wildfires blow […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: To reduce ozone, cut emissions at the source
At October’s Air Quality Control Commission monthly meeting, staff from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment presented its report on the 2021 ozone season. If you lived anywhere along the Front Range during this past summer, you can probably guess what the report said. To no one’s surprise, it was the worst ozone […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Colorado can’t control all parts of air pollution. But it can control some. Let’s focus on those
As a father to an almost 2-year-old, the future of our state’s air quality really hits home. I want my daughter to grow up with blue skies and clean air. I want her to grow up playing on playgrounds, walking her dog, and going for hikes in the foothills without risking her health. I want […]
Posted inEnvironment, News
Western boom cities like Denver see spike in harmful ozone
By Jim Robbins, Kaiser Health News The reduction of harmful ground-level ozone across most of the U.S. over the past several decades has been an air pollution success story. But in some parts of the country, especially in the heavily populated mountain valleys of the West, the odorless, colorless gas has remained stubbornly difficult to […]
Posted inClimate, Energy, Environment, News
Ozone plagues Colorado’s Front Range, state report says, but bids to change it are elusive
The worst ozone year in recent history on the Northern Front Range boosted pollutant violations in a rolling three-year average closely watched by the EPA, state officials said Thursday, though they did not offer bold new programs to combat the hazardous substance. Twelve monitoring sites on the Front Range now have a three-year average over […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Colorado has a strong vision for electric vehicles. It needs stronger policies to achieve that vision
Dangerous air quality is Denver’s new summertime normal, setting an ominous new record of 65 Ozone Alert Days between June and August. While worsening wildfires mostly beyond Colorado’s control — along with oil and gas drilling — often are blamed for our toxic air, a major culprit for this issue is the hazardous air pollution […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Zornio: Fact-checking Jared Polis on COVID, air quality and taxes
Last week, Gov. Jared Polis appeared on Colorado Matters, where he discussed COVID-19, air quality and income taxes. The interview sparked heated debate on social media, leading some to question if the governor was intentionally playing fast and loose with the facts. Indeed, Polis drew push back for good reason — including from the show’s […]