If the refinery won’t take meaningful action to improve safety and maintenance, state regulators must hold the operator accountable.
Suncor oil refinery
Posted inOpinion Columns
Opinion: Suncor is stalling on its obligation to monitor pollution emissions
If the energy company were the ‘good neighbor’ it claims to be, it wouldn’t be suing Colorado’s air-quality watchdog agency.
Posted inClimate, Energy, News
Colorado will finally issue renewed Suncor permit, while tightening air monitoring
Colorado air pollution regulators have issued one of the Suncor refinery’s two long-delayed permit renewals, while also strengthening rules on how the company must carry out a new air monitoring law to protect neighbors. The EPA also signaled it no longer objects to the Plant 2 permit for Suncor after the state made some revisions. […]
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 inClimate, Environment, Equity, Health, News
How Colorado’s changing climate is putting children’s health at risk
This March, Colorado State Sen. Faith Winter stood at a podium in the State Capitol and spoke to a gathered crowd about reducing the state’s air pollution. After introductions, Winter, Gov. Jared Polis and others unveiled a package of environmental bills that aim to increase access to public transit, build more energy efficient buildings, and construct safe […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: Suncor’s days of beguiling regulators and befouling our air at last may be numbered
There’s a new sheriff in town and, unlike the friendly folks at the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment, she’s not here just to make nice with environmental outlaws. When former Colorado House Speaker KC Becker was named administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 8 office last fall, she promised to further […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Water
Advocacy groups force Colorado water quality commission to consider upgrades for urban streams
The state Water Quality Control Commission reversed itself this week and agreed to consider tougher protections for urban streams, another sign of activists deploying recent environmental justice laws in safeguarding local water, land and air. The commission Monday unanimously accepted demands in a petition from a coalition of conservation and advocacy groups that they revisit […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, Health, News, Outdoors
Suncor must make pollution cuts to meet new haze rules protecting Colorado park views
Suncor must make deeper cuts to its sulfur dioxide emissions as part of state regulators’ revisions to federal “regional haze” rules, meant to boost visibility and restore pristine conditions at Rocky Mountain National Park, Great Sand Dunes and wilderness areas. The Air Quality Control Commission gave preliminary approval in November to a plan telling Suncor […]
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 inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Suncor supports all air-monitoring efforts
For Commerce City and North Denver residents who want more information about the community’s air quality, it’s important to share that the new CCND air monitoring program is now live. Residents should soon experience a significant improvement in the availability and accessibility of air-monitoring data, as a number of community air monitoring programs are underway. […]