Imagine living your entire life near a large oil refinery, a meatpacking facility, or an industrial plant that manufactures tech or food products. These facilities, often located in low-income and/or largely communities of color, have for generations been the source of severe air and water pollution and have done damage to your neighborhood and community. This means residents living near these facilities disproportionately suffer the health impacts such as asthma and COPD.

Now imagine if your government – which is charged with protecting public health and safety- had the chance to decrease air pollution from these corporate polluters, but instead decided to let them increase pollution.

That’s exactly how many environmental justice organizations and community members are feeling about what’s going on right now at Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission.

On Sept. 19 and Sept. 20, this commission will be voting on a rule known as the Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy Management for Manufacturing or “GEMM 2” rule. The rule is intended to regulate the air pollution coming from Colorado’s industrial sector.

There are 18 companies covered under this rule that would be required to reduce their pollution, including multinational corporate giants like the Suncor oil refinery, the JBS meatpacking facility, Cargill and Molson Coors. Unsurprisingly, many of these companies are arguing having to reduce their pollution over a reasonable amount of time in order to protect the health and safety of the people who live next door is too costly and burdensome.

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The current version of the rule includes multiple loopholes for polluters, including a cost cap that allows for indirect and off-site emissions reductions, a pay-to-pollute option, and, jaw-droppingly, actually allowing emissions to increase in the near term. Companies should not be allowed to continue causing harm to the health and safety of their neighbors for the low price of shelling out money for a local park or nature preserve.

ProgressNow Colorado collected testimonials from real people whose lives would be worse off if the Air Quality Control Commission does not pass a strong GEMM 2 rule. As one of those interviews – Beto from Commerce City – put it, “this rule does not even come remotely close to providing the kinds of protections that our communities deserve and that will give us a fighting chance of combating the terrible effects of toxic pollutants.” It is time to hold corporate polluters accountable and stop allowing them to pass the buck.

It is time the Air Quality Control Commission and Gov. Jared Polis step in to really address the disproportionate public health and safety impacts caused by these corporate polluters. We implore them to heed the cries of the most impacted Coloradans for action and prioritize people over corporate polluters. Regulators should not be tripping over themselves to find loopholes for polluters.

Air quality commissioners, please adopt the strongest version of the GEMM Phase 2 rule or take the time to go back to the drawing board until you can adequately protect Coloradans’ health and safety from industrial polluters.

Sara Loflin is the executive director of ProgressNow Colorado