Opinion: Colorado is writing the US blueprint on ozone control

The politics of energy and environmental policy are often portrayed in black-and-white terms. In reality, however, it's not that simple.

Real progress on energy and the environment, as with so many other topics, is made somewhere in the middle. Sorting the signal from the noise requires keeping a focus on good institutions, robust regulations, clear and achievable policy goals and the financial resources to implement them.

Sounds pretty dry. But that's the job. Demonstrating real leadership on energy and the environment is hard, there are no shortcuts, and you don't get to legislate and walk away.

Colorado has done the hard work, and now serves as a model for other states, even other countries.

Case in point: Our state's rules for regulating methane and other oil and gas emissions, the product of almost a decade of painstaking work involving state regulators, industry representatives, environmental groups and other stakeholders.

These rules are so far ahead of the pack that Colorado was the blueprint for a national methane standard, which the Biden Administration says will cut oil and gas methane emissions 87% by 2030. Getting methane under control is critically important, because it traps 80 times more heat over a 20-year timeframe than does carbon dioxide — the more well-known greenhouse gas.

But not everyone buys into the benefits: In early April, several groups demanded another massive overhaul of Colorado's regulations and permitting procedures. Their demands took the form of a bill, House Bill 23-1294.

The stated purpose of the bill was targeting ozone-forming emissions from oil and gas operations and other sources too. These are terribly important emissions to get under control, due to their impacts on local air quality.

But the administration of Gov. Jared Polis had already announced its own program to cut those same ozone-forming emissions – known as nitrogen oxides – 30% by 2025 and 50% by 2030.

"It would be extremely challenging to implement the policies outlined in the bill and would stall planned rule-making in 2023 to tackle ozone and other air pollutants," the governor's spokesman, Conor Cahill, said in response. "Our air regulators are focused on standards and regulations that will have the largest benefit to the air we breathe."

An analysis of HB 23-1294, carried out by the nonpartisan Colorado Legislative Council, validated the governor's concerns. It found an avalanche of new mandates on state regulators that would create huge increases in their day-to-day workload – enough to require the immediate hiring of more than 100 new full-time regulators, in fact.

Senior officials in the Polis administration went to work, and over the final few weeks of this year's legislative session, HB 23-1294 was dramatically scaled back.

Their goal: protecting world-class regulatory controls for oil- and gas-sector emissions and the environmental outcomes those controls are making possible, inside and outside of Colorado.

Consider President Biden's methane standard, which aims to bring Colorado-style controls to other oil and gas-producing states. It's a critical component of his plan to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 – less than seven years from now.

That's not all, however. The work that started here in Colorado is also laying the foundation for a permanent move in Europe away from high-emitting Russian natural gas to low-emitting U.S. natural gas – a shift that could deliver massive climate benefits and strengthen the NATO alliance at the same time.

But a long-term shift depends on convincing the European Union with assurances that the U.S. can provide natural gas that was produced with little to no methane leakage. President Biden's methane standard will go a long way towards making that case, but remember: For his standard to succeed, other states will have to adopt Colorado-style methane controls.

If Colorado's regulatory system suddenly shut down, that would be much harder, if not impossible, for the Biden administration to make that happen – and a truly historic set of environmental and geopolitical outcomes could slip away.

Again, Colorado walked the razor's edge. It was the kind of outcome that sets Colorado apart and explains our leadership position on energy and environmental policy.

Note: The headline of this column was edited to change the word "ozone" to "methane" to more accurately capture the essay's emphasis on the state's work on methane controls. The change was made May 17 at 3:42 p.m.

Greg Clough, of Denver, is the deputy director of the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines.

Simon Lomax, of Greenwood Village, is a program manager at the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines.

Morgan Bazilian, of Golden, is the director of the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines, where he is a professor of public policy.

The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun's opinion policy and submit columns, suggested writers and more to [email protected]. (Learn more about how to submit a column.)

Follow Colorado Sun Opinion on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun's opinion policy and submit columns, suggested writers and more to [email protected]. (Learn more about how to submit a column.)

Follow Colorado Sun Opinion on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Greg Clough, of Denver, is the deputy director of the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines. More by Greg Clough

Simon Lomax, of Greenwood Village, is a program manager at the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines. More by Simon Lomax

Morgan Bazilian, of Golden, is director of the Payne Institute and professor of public policy at the Colorado School of Mines. More by Morgan Bazilian