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Tag: Colorado Air Quality Control Commission

State air quality officials identify five priority toxic contaminants, leading to more regulation
State, The Sum & Substance

State air quality officials identify five priority toxic contaminants, leading to more regulation

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado officials took the first steps Friday in adding new control measures around five priority toxic air contaminants produced by sources ranging from oil-and-gas drilling to wastewater processing to the sterilization of medical equipment. By choosing the five priority toxics, the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission triggered a process that will lead to creation of health-based standards around the compounds in September and then approval of emission-control strategies in 2026. Environmental activists cheered a future in which contaminants create fewer health problems in long-polluted areas, while business leaders warned that AQCC members selected the quintet without any discussion of whether the toxins are feasible to control. READ...
Commission approves ‘extremely aggressive’ emissions cuts for midstream oil & gas sector
State, The Sum & Substance

Commission approves ‘extremely aggressive’ emissions cuts for midstream oil & gas sector

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado air-quality regulators on Friday approved the state’s first emissions-reduction rules for the midstream sector of the oil-and-gas industry — rules that officials acknowledged will be expensive to comply with but said are necessary to curb pollution. During a two-day hearing, energy companies warned that the 20.5% reduction in emissions versus 2015 levels come at too high a price — an estimated $86.3 million per year in sector-wide compliance costs that would rise if the sector experienced significant growth. Meanwhile, environmental groups argued that the rules fell short of achieving the emissions cuts called for in the state’s Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap and don’t guarantee substantial help for disproportion...
Air Quality Commission will hold hearings under new procedural rules
State, The Sum & Substance

Air Quality Commission will hold hearings under new procedural rules

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance In an effort to create more public participation in rulemaking and to improve transparency in the process, the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission voted Friday to overhaul its procedural rules for the first time since 1998. The new rules will extend from three months to four months the average time around most rulemakings, will restructure the way that parties to such hearings file motions and will attempt to define the scope of rulemakings more clearly from the start. They will become applicable in August, meaning that business and environmental groups that interact frequently with the AQCC will see the first changes by February or March in preparation for hearings later in the year. While technical in nature, the changes are significa...