By Joe Mueller | Colorado Politics
Business leaders joined leaders of Colorado’s petroleum and natural gas industries in denouncing a wave of legislation creating higher environmental standards and phasing out drilling.
“These concepts range from banning any development for any industry that requires an air permit in up to 50% of the state to tracking and limiting how much you can drive your car,” Kait Schwartz, director of the American Petroleum Institute Colorado, said during a press conference on Thursday. “Ideas like this are harmful to the Colorado economy and many of of them are bad for the environment.” Two Senate bills, 24-165 and 24-166 introduced Thursday, would tighten emission rules along with new enforcement of air quality standards and penalties. If passed, the state would establish vehicle miles traveled reduction targets for certain areas and “develop policies and programs to assist applicable metropolitan planning organizations in meeting the targets.”
Senate Bill 24-159, introduced last week, would require the Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission to adopt rules to end the issuing of new oil and gas permits by Jan. 1, 2030. It also would reduce the total number of permits for new wells in 2028 and 2029 and require new permits issued after 2024 to stop operations by 2032.