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 significant because the AQCC has become the primary state regulatory body implementing Gov. Jared Polis’ emissions-reduction mandates, and more community and industry groups must interact with it regularly. It has OK’d rules in the last year-plus increasing regulations on sectors from oil and gas to manufacturing to commercial buildings, and it will deal in the next year with new limits to air toxins and restrictions on the midstream energy sector, among other things.