Colo. May Limit Oil and Gas Emissions

(AP) -- Facing federal pressure over worsening air pollution, a state air quality commission on Sunday approved its first-ever statewide emissions controls on the booming oil and gas industry.
The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission said new rules would reduce emissions by 68 percent from tanks that collect oil, liquefied natural gas and other byproducts. The rules would take effect in May 2008 if the Legislature approves them. The commission would conduct yearly reviews of the emissions levels when the tanks are vented, and of the health impacts of the industry. The new rules are not as stringent as emissions controls along the Front Range, a region from the Denver area north that is facing a greater rise in ozone levels than elsewhere in the state and is home to one of the state's largest and most established natural gas field. The commission strengthened pollution rules already in place on the Front Range to meet federal ozone levels. Oil and gas companies will have to cut emissions by 75 percent, more than the existing 47.5 percent requirement and more than an industry-backed compromise of 73 percent. "It's a bitter surprise," said Ken Wonstolen, general counsel for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association trade group. Wonstolen said companies will have only about 130 days to equip the tanks with devices to further cut emissions. The emissions react with sunlight to form ozone, a primary component of smog. It is a colorless gas and is itself a threat to children and people with asthma. Some environmental groups criticized the commission's decision. "We do not understand why the industry is allowed to pollute the Western Slope but held to a higher standards on the Front Range," said Duke Cox, a member of the Western Colorado Congress, an environmental group.
The industry says it is being unfairly singled out. Old cars on the road are a bigger problem, they say, and forcing any industry to spend millions more on questionable solutions doesn't make sense. Decades of restrictions ranging from the banning of trash burning to pollution controls on cars had appeared to rid Denver of its notorious brown cloud, but state officials say the industry has brought it back, and also spread it to western Colorado. The state had predicted emissions of 146 tons a day by next year, but revised that upward to 233 tons. The Environmental Protection Agency had given the state until July to come up with a plan to reduce ozone along the populous Front Range. But the federal agency agreed to delay declaring the Front Range and other communities in violation of the Clean Air Act if they meet certain milestones. --- On the Net: Colorado Air Quality Control Commission: http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/op/aqcc