Colorado Oil & Gas Association and Environmental Defense Fund - Joint Statement on Air Quality Control Commission Vote on New Air Regulations

The Air Quality Control Commission today voted to strengthen air quality requirements for the Denver Metro/North Front Range Ozone Non-Attainment Area by approving revisions to Colorado’s Regulation 7.

Revisions include the following new oil and gas regulatory requirements: increased inspection frequency for certain facilities in the Leak Detection and Repair Program, a new inspection program for pneumatic controllers, and a mutual commitment to further evaluate and analyze potential areas for cost-effective reductions in hydrocarbon emissions.

We worked collaboratively to achieve compromise in several key areas, and we jointly support approval of these revisions which will lead to meaningful emissions reductions in the Non-Attainment Area.

“We worked extremely hard with EDF to reach agreement on core aspects of the Division’s proposal. This agreement highlights how far we in the oil and natural gas industry, and others in the environmental community, have come in working together for achievable air quality improvements. Because of this engagement, and because our industry constantly strives to improve its environment and air quality performance, Colorado has the most technologically advanced, strictly regulated, and well-controlled oil and natural gas operations anywhere in the country, and we continue to get better. We are very proud of that fact,” said Dan Haley, President & CEO of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association.

“State regulators, industry, and the environmental community in Colorado have once again demonstrated that we are capable of putting politics aside to achieve important progress in reducing emissions from the oil and gas sector. There is still more work to do, but approaching policy initiatives in this manner benefits Coloradans and can help solve some of our nation’s most pressing environmental issues if this happens more often,” said Dan Grossman, National Director of State Programs for Environmental Defense Fund’s Oil and Gas Program.