Good News, Bad News Part II

UPDATE: Environmental, local government coalition presents call for short-term ozone reductions in Denver metro area.

We reported on the good news and bad news of Denver's ozone pollution last week. Sad to say, the bad news seems to be continuing.

Last Thursday, the Regional Air Quality Council was set to adopt recommendations for reducing harmful ozone pollution in the Denver metro area in time for the summer of 2008. It didn't happen. Instead, the Regional Air Quality Council decided to talk about it more, meaning recommendations for reducing ozone in the summer of 2008 won't be made until December, if at all.

More talk isn't necessarily a bad thing, but here's the timing we're up against: if any ozone reduction regulations are going to be adopted, they need to be approved by the Air Quality Control Commission and the law requires at least 60 days for the Commission to adopt new regulations. At best, we're looking at rules being adopted in February, perhaps even later.

Talk is good, but has it only delayed action to reduce ozone for 2008? Although Governor Ritter called on the Regional Air Quality Council to immediately craft an ozone reduction plan for the summer of 2008, the Council hasn't quite risen to the challenge yet. What's more, Governor Ritter made his charge last July, almost five months ago. We haven't exactly met the Governor's call to "immediately" develop a plan.

Will the Regional Air Quality Council drag its feet so much that it may lose any chance of reducing ozone for the summer of 2008? We hope not.