Oil and Gas: Let Them Breathe Air Pollution

Colorado's oil and gas industry is at it again, voicing opposition to stronger clean air safeguards and the protection of our health.

Earlirer this week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that current health standards for ozone, or smog, need to be strengthened. The reason? Health scientists are finding that people, particularly children and those with asthma and other respiratory ailments, are harmed by ozone pollution even at levels below current health standards.

We all agree that smog standards need to be strengthened for our health. But what's industry's biggest concern? That "tightening the standard will bring unacceptably high costs."

In commenting on what the new standards could mean for the Denver metro area, Greg Schnacke with the oil and gas industry commented that, "This whole area would be back at square one, and every industry would be on the table (for emission cuts)."

Well, we disagree. New, stronger smog standards wil mean cleaner air here in Denver, healthier children, and happier families. Sure, it will take further reductions in air pollution. We hope that the oil and gas industry will be the first to jump on the table to cut their emissions.

New smog standards will give us an opportunity to make things better here in Denver. While we're not the oil and gas industry, we can't understand how this could be bad, even for industry.