Elimination of Upset Loophole Stalled

At a stakeholder meeting today, industry requested that the state delay proposing elimination of the "upset conditions" loophole at this Thursday's Air Quality Control Commission meeting. Industry, headed by Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry air quality committee chair and industry attorney Dennis Arfmann, argued that they needed more time to prepare an alternative proposal to raise before the Commission. Another meeting has been set for September.

Just to be clear, industry was given until August 8th to come up with a full alternative proposal. This is yet another example of industry efforts to stall this effort to protect clean air. Fortunately, so long as a final proposal is approved by December of 2006, we'll be fine. This is because any final proposal will need approval by the Colorado legislature before it's approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While we'll review industry's proposal, any more delay will not be accepted.

It's important to point out that industry's efforts to stall this process seem to have been unending from the start. While this is a very straightforward issue--the EPA has said the loophole is illegal and the loophole is clearly threatening air quality--industry has nevertheless sought to bog down this process with trivial concerns.

And for those who may not know, Dennis Arfmann is not only the chair of the air quality committee for the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, a pro-industry lobbying group, he's on the Regional Air Quality Council, an entity that's supposed to be working for clean air in the Denver metro area. This industry attorney, pictured below, has represented natural gas companies, coal-fired power plants, oil refineries, cement plants, and other illustrious major polluters.