Colorado Democrats and environmental groups are floating a bill to add two stronger anti-pollution advocacy seats to the Air Quality Control Commission, close loopholes they call “pay to pollute,” and target specific companies that are harming distressed neighborhoods, though Gov. Polis is already signaling opposition.
The legislators and clean air advocates say state regulators have not been aggressive enough in carrying out portions of the ambitious 2021 law, the Environmental Justice Act. They say regulators are allowing companies to continue polluting disproportionately impacted neighborhoods and pay into a fund the state would use in other pollution-fighting efforts.
The advocates have also argued a set of rules approved in late 2023 allows some industries to actually increase greenhouse gas emissions between now and the 2030 start to industry wide cuts, since they are currently under the limits. This year’s House Bill 1339 would require meaningful cuts from those industries between now and when the 2030 rules go into effect.
“Communities right now are full to the brim with contamination, and they simply cannot take anymore,” said Rep. Manny Rutinel, a Commerce City Democrat and one of three prime sponsors of the bill. “We need to close this loophole that allows these corporate facilities to just simply pay to continue to poison these communities.”
The current draft of the bill, which supporters say could change in conversation with the governor’s office and others, starts by expanding from nine to 11 the seats on the Air Quality Control Commission, which takes health department staff recommendations and votes on rules to carry out legislation. The new seats would be much more specifically defined than the other nine:
- “One member who represents a disproportionately impacted community and the interests of communities of color and who does not derive income from an entity that the commission regulates.”
- “One climate scientist employed by an organization that does not derive income from an entity that the commission regulates.”
Rutinel said negotiators are willing to consider leaving the commission at nine members, but requiring that two of the future gubernatorial appointments be from those two categories. Environmental advocates and some legislators have grown frustrated that the current commission rarely goes beyond Polis administration drafts in making pollution-control rules, with only one or two dissenting votes.
Advocates failed in winning stronger controls at a September AQCC vote that further defined the 2021 justice act. Air Pollution Control Division staff said their rules would reach a 20% emissions cut by 2030 from a group of 18 industrial companies like Suncor, Molson Coors, Cargill Meat Solutions and Leprino Foods. The package of rules was called GEMM 2, as the second round of industrial cuts under a policy called Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy Management for Manufacturing.
Those industries argued at the time that a 2030 timeline for those cuts is too quick and expensive. But environmental and neighborhood groups said the state’s draft rules for the legislation-mandated cuts won’t actually reduce greenhouse gases for years. Meanwhile, Colorado is falling behind targets set in other legislation for overall greenhouse gas cuts by 2030.
Environmental groups also knocked a trading plan to allow the 18 sites on the list to buy carbon credits to meet the rules, calling it a game where the same side always loses: The factories are often located in low-income and high-minority neighborhoods disproportionately impacted by decades of harmful pollutants.
The idea of a big company like Suncor buying carbon credits from a greener company instead of cutting pollution at their own facility, next to those beleaguered neighbors, was one objection environmental groups brought in September.
The rules the AQCC passed over their objections say the next companies targeted will only be able to buy credits to fulfill their cuts if they’ve proved they’ve installed all possible cost-effective pollution control measures.
The Polis administration does not sound ready to abandon the recent rules.
“The reality is Colorado is a national leader on climate action and the (September) rulemaking is the first of its kind in the nation to reduce greenhouse gas pollution from the manufacturing sector while prioritizing projects that reduce local air pollution,” said Shelby Wieman, a spokesperson for the governor. The governor just released the updated version of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Roadmap to reach the 2030 emissions cuts, Wieman noted.
“This bill represents a misunderstanding of the GEMM 2 rule and instead of reducing pollution would force production out of state, hurting Colorado’s economy without alleviating the actual problem. The governor’s office will monitor this legislation but has serious concerns,” Wieman said.
Environmental advocates responded that the updated Roadmap actually shows Colorado falling short of its targets in 2030 and beyond under current policy, and that the report itself details a host of new policies lawmakers must approve to get back on track.
“Some of the ZIP codes in my district are some of the most contaminated in the entire country,” said Rutinel, whose Commerce City district is full of industrial factories, warehouses and heavy interstate traffic. “Exposures to these toxic pollutants have all sorts of negative effects like asthma, respiratory disease, low birth weight, premature death, the list goes on. It’s about protecting families and kids from these corporations that are currently poisoning our air and water.”
Removing the “pay to pollute” option, while also demanding specific greenhouse gas cuts of major emitters like Suncor, would carry out the intentions of the 2021 legislation, Rutinel said.
“We need to close this loophole that allows these corporate facilities to just simply pay to continue to poison these communities,” he said.
House Bill 1339 is scheduled for a committee hearing on March 14.
