The Polis administration threatened the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with legal action over pending plans to impose a more expensive blend of gasoline to reduce ozone pollution in the Denver metro area. I a letter to the EPA, Gov. Jared Polis called it “frustrating” that a federal law governing clean air standards attempts to impose a “decades-old, one-size-fits-all approach” that also “does not accurately account for Colorado’s unique situation.”

The Denver metro/Northern Front Range ozone non-attainment region faces a pending downgrade to “severe” status, under which residents will pay for the more expensive fuel – called reformulated gasoline – as soon as the summer 2024. At issue is the failure of Colorado to achieve EPA ozone-pollution standards for the region.

Noting the spike in gas prices and high inflation, the governor told EPA Administrator Michael Regan that Coloradans, particularly those of limited means, “should not bear the burden of this requirement.”

“Colorado hereby reserves the right to pursue any legal means we identify to correct this injustice and inequity, particularly when it leads to impacts like reformulated gasoline that impact hardworking Coloradans without significant benefit with regard to ozone attainment,” Polis said in his letter to Regan. 

Polis didn’t specifically say his administration will sue the EPA, but Colorado, he said, “reserves the right to pursue any legal options.” That includes waivers, extensions or “state level actions to avoid undue economic strain on Coloradans,” he said.

The governor also asked the EPA to conduct a detailed cost-benefit analysis to measure the cost of reformulated gas and its benefits to human health and combating ozone pollution. He added that Colorado also will evaluate requesting an extension to the RFG requirement similar to what Georgia sought, based on fuel supply shortage, for the Atlanta area. 

Greer Bailey, executive director of the Colorado Wyoming Petroleum Marketers Association, earlier said Polis and the EPA should take a “hard look” at what the mandate would cost Coloradans.

“This is by far one of the most expensive proposals that our regulatory partners could impose on our neighbors and families in the Front Range,” Bailey said. “I think it’s important that the governor and the EPA take a hard look, scientifically, of what the actual (ozone) reduction would be, because those costs are going to be significant on families trying to make their way.”

Bailey also said upgrading refineries to produce the new RFG blend could cost “tens of millions of dollars” and he expressed wariness that out-of-state refineries that supply gasoline to some 66% of Colorado might decide it’s not worth it to invest in such improvements.

The only refinery in Colorado, Suncor’s Commerce City facility, supplies about 33% of the state’s gasoline.

A Suncor spokesperson told The Denver Gazette last month that the refinery is “preparing to be able to produce RFG for the 2024 summer driving season, in accordance with Clean Air Act requirements for the area covered by the non-attainment severe’ designation.”

The total cost of the project, the company said, is estimated to be more than $36 million.

Polis’ current position stands in stark contrast to the approach he took in 2019.

Back in 2018, EPA determined that the Denver metro area and northern Front Range failed to meet air quality standards and prepared to downgrade the region’s status to “serious” non-attainment.

Then-governor and now U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper asked the federal agency for an extension of time for the state to meet the standards.

The election that year ushered in a new administration, and about two months after assuming office, Polis withdrew Colorado’s extension request.

“We believe that the interests of our citizens are best served by moving aggressively forward and without delay in our efforts to reduce ground level ozone concentrations in the Denver Metro/North Front Range non-attainment area,” Polis said in his March 19, 2019, letter to the EPA.

The difference between 2019 and 2022 is the hefty gasoline price tag that would come with the latest downgrade.

Reporter Scott Weiser contributed to this article.