On Track for Clean Air?

It's six months before the start of the 2008 ozone season and so far, no short-term strategy for reducing ozone has been developed, let alone adopted in time to keep people safe in the Denver metro area.

And, as a recent article in the Rocky Mountain News reports, time is now the greatest hurdle to reducing ozone in 2008.

That's a shame, too. It's been over five months since Governor Ritter charged the Regional Air Quality Council with developing a plan to reduce ozone in 2008 to keep people safe and healthy. If time is the only hurdle we face, it's because of monumental footdragging, not because of any inevitability.

Sure, the Regional Air Quality Council staff has come up with a list of potential strategies to reduce ozone, but these strategies are dubious at best.

For one thing, the "plan" relies on existing or voluntary measures to reduce ozone. In other words, the plan relies on the same measures that got us here in the first place. Only seven "new" strategies to reduce ozone are being proposed.

And of the "new" strategies, the Regional Air Quality Council staff predicts only a 0.5% reduction in volatile organic compounds and a 0.12% reduction in nitrogen oxides, both key ozone forming pollutants.

Time is not on our side, and it's because of dilly-dallying around.

But you know, this is not the fault of the Regional Air Quality Council or its staff. The reason is industry resistance to protecting clean air. Most oil and gas drillers for example, have adamantly opposed efforts to reduce ozone for 2008. We say most because some companies have actually stepped up to the plate. EnCana, an oil and gas company operating north of Denver, is voluntarily implementing a host of ozone reducing strategies.

Yet for every company like EnCana, there are, unfortunately, two or more that refuse to do anything to keep Denver safe from ozone pollution, and this ruins it for everyone.

Just look at the oil refiners It's estimated that reducing the volatility of gasoline at Denver's refineries could reduce ozone forming compounds by 3.5 tons/day. This would amount to nearly 25 times more pollution reductions than could be achieved by tightening tailpipe emission standards for cars. Yet as effective and promising as this strategy is, oil refiners have shunned the idea of reducing the volatility of gasoline in the near-term.

Footdragging is one thing, but resisting clean air is another. With industry refusing to step up to the plate to reduce ozone in 2008, it means more air pollution is likely in store for the Denver metro area.