Thirty Colorado environmental groups wrote an open letter to Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) this week, asking him to publicly oppose a plan to drill 166 oil and gas wells near Aurora communities. Energy company Civitas Resources wants to use hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to extract oil and gas from underground shale formations beneath 32,000 acres of State Land Board property.
On Monday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) has been selected to receive $199,705,797 and that the Colorado Energy Office (CEO) has been selected to receive $129,008,738 in Climate Pollution Reduction grants. These grants, a part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda, are given with the aim of implementing community-driven solutions to the climate crisis, to reduce air pollution, and to accelerate a national transition to clean energy.
by Brooke Larsen, High Country News June 6, 2024
As black smoke billowed from a massive fire at Pueblo’s EVRAZ steel mill, city officials issued an air quality shelter-in-place alert: “Go or stay inside, please shut your windows and turn off your air conditioner.”
Access to affordable and energy-efficient cooling is necessary for relief from extreme heat.
Increasingly, land is shifting into the hands of billionaires. By Jonathan Thompson, High Country News
July was the hottest month in Earth’s history, largely due to human-caused global warming. Coloradans dealt with unhealthy air quality all month long as the state issued 14 ozone alert days during July. The Front Range regularly has some of the worst air quality in the country during the summer months because of the high density of vehicles, high temperatures, and oil and gas activity in the surrounding area.
“When people ask what my top three issues are, I say water, water, water.”
On Monday, Colorado air quality regulators released the latest draft of rules intended to hold polluters across the state accountable for releasing harmful toxins into the air. Environmental activists worry that communities facing the greatest threat — where many high-polluting facilities exist — might be unduly harmed by allowances in the rules for companies to shift greenhouse gas emission reductions to other facilities they own.
Earlier this month, Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) signed a bill into law that’s intended to decrease ozone pollution stemming from oil and gas production in Colorado and establish an interim legislative committee to investigate solutions to the poor air quality affecting parts of Colorado.
