This month the Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) will consider regulations to reduce carbon pollution and other air toxins emitted from the transportation and processing of oil and gas in Colorado. Yet again, these rules do not contain sufficient protections for Colorado’s most vulnerable people, like my constituents in Commerce City and my family, who have long suffered from cumulative effects of toxic air quality. Strong emissions regulations are a matter of life and death for generations of people, since this kind of pollution can cause childhood asthma followed by an increased mortality rate. Living in Commerce City gives us less of a lifespan than the rest of our state, but for many, it’s our home.

History has shown pollution is cumulatively higher in communities where people of color and people with lower incomes live because of affordability, we often can’t move away. Commerce City is an egregious example of cumulative effects as the site of multiple toxic industrial facilities, oil and gas development, a landfill, the National Arsenal, and many highways, each of which contribute to a terrible burden of pollution on our communities connected in our air, land and water. When the Colorado legislature passed the Environmental Justice Act in 2021, I worked with the state to finally take steps to protect these Disproportionately Impacted (DI) Communities. However, as I watch the creation of regulations yearly intended to implement the Environmental Justice Act, I know regulations continue to not be strong enough to make a difference for Colorado’s most vulnerable communities who struggle with the health and financial burden of living in a sacrifice zone of pollution for the benefit of industries. What can you do when industry matters more than the environment protections of people?

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The latest example is state regulators’ proposal for regulating carbon pollution from midstream oil and gas companies, those that process and transport these fuels in Colorado. Regulators have created a Front Range Prioritization Area (FRPA) that has become the focus of increased protections. Companies operating in this area must make more reductions sooner than those in the rest of Colorado. State regulators believe reductions in pollution in this area will automatically benefit DI communities with no real commitment to ensure that will happen, since they know about 50% of the midstream emissions in the FRPA occur in DI Communities. Though I believe this is a well-intentioned first step, nothing in the rule requires reductions from midstream facilities in those DI communities which is recommended in the EJ Act. That leaves a 50-50 chance for reductions that truly benefit these communities. Many pollutants emitted are very localized in their health impacts, so it is the facility next door that affects my constituents’ health. That’s why it matters reductions happen on-site in these communities. This is within feet of elementary schools, workplaces and homes. We want to remind AQCC people live here and need more than a 50% equity priority to have our health and safety protected.

To me, a 50% chance of benefiting the people who most need relief from toxic air quality is not honoring the Environmental Justice Act, which mandates prioritization of these communities for reductions in air pollution. Protections for these communities should be guaranteed by this rule because we continue to exhaust every regulatory and policy avenue to finally protect my community. Beyond its lack of guaranteed protection, the rule could actually allow for increased emissions in some of these DI communities because it allows for emissions trading which is an unfair industry game allowing polluters to pay to play with our health for generations. Companies that emit above their goals could buy credits from other companies, and thereby avoid making their own on-site reductions.

For the sake of the Commerce City residents I am responsible for as a city council member, the future generations and the many other vulnerable Coloradans living in DI Communities, the AQCC should include guaranteed protections for DI Communities in the midstream rule they approve because its long overdue. Only then can we be sure our state’s most effected people will receive the justice and protections they deserve. No community should live and die without the right to breath clean air, because in the end, it truly is all our air and every one of our communities is affected.

Renée Millard-Chacon is co-founder of Womxn from the Mountain, co-chair on the equity analysis subcommittee for the Environmental Justice Action Taskforce and Commerce City council womxn for Ward 3.