HomeMy WebLinkAbout20231284.tiffMay 2, 2023
OFFICE OF THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PHONE: 970-4004200
FAX: 970-336-7233
1150 O STREET
P.O. BOX 758
GREELEY, CO 80632
The Honorable Jared Polis, Governor
Colorado State Capitol Building
200 East Colfax Ave., Room 136
Denver, CO 80203
Governorpolis@statexo.us
Re: Weld County Continued Opposition to House Bill 23-1294, Despite Strike Below Amendments
Dear Governor Polls:
The Board of County Commissioners of Weld County ("the BOCC") joins the Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment ("CDPHE"), the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission ("COGCC"), the Colorado Chamber of Commerce,
and most local governments, experts, and citizens across the state in opposing amended House Bill 23-1294 ("HB 1294" or "the
amended Bill"). Even with the strike -below amendment recently adopted, the amended bill retains many of the fundamental
problems of the introduced version and remains deeply flawed. The amended Bill was approved on a party -line vote by the House
Energy and Environment Committee despite testimony from concerned citizens, industry groups, and air quality experts from
private industry and the State. The BOCC has serious concerns that, even as amended, this Bill would greatly impair the rights of
industry to obtain necessary air permits, would burden regulators and the judicial system, and would not provide material benefits
to air quality in Colorado. We respectfully request that you continue to signal your strong opposition of HB 1294 to its sponsors,
and that you veto the amended bill if it should pass both houses.
HB 1294 Supplants Experts and Mandates Controls Without Scientific Analysis
FIB 1294 continues to indulge in an unwarranted focus upon the oil and gas industry emission controls that are unlikely to move
the needle on ozone. Such provisions include:
Electrification of remote engines used in oil and gas (but no other sector) unless deemed "infeasible," a term that is defined
in the Bill only as "lacking access to the power grid" and without reference to data or expert opinion to suppon such a
determination.
State Implementation Plan ("SIP") provisions requiring use of electric drill rigs and engines used in well development and
completion, unless their use is not "possible," and without reference to data projecting the associated ozone reductions of
such a determination; and
Requiring offsets for emissions of nitrogen oxides ("NOx") and volatile organic compounds ("VOC"), even though
Colorado's emission reduction credit program does not currently have offset credits available.
"These legislative mandates preempt your appointees on the Regional Air Quality Council ("RAQC"), their professional staffs, and
involved stakeholders, from developing control strategies based on the best available data and modelling for adoption through
rulemaking. RAQC has conducted rigorous assessments to decide which source categories are contributing the most to ozone
concentrations at violating monitors. Weld County has evaluated those assessments and made recommendations to both the Air
Quality Control Commission ("AQCC") and to RAQC to address the sources that most contribute to ozone formation. Experts
agree that continued elevated levels of ground -level ozone persist because we continue to focus almost exclusively on O&G sources
with greatly diminishing returns. Yet, this amended Bill ignores expert analysis and imposes a technology standard that will not
work. The amendments to HO 1294 also call for a legislative interim committee on ozone to further give voice to activists over
experts in up to five additional pieces of legislation, potentially multiplying the harm that HB 1294 will cause.
HB 1294 Burdens Industry and Government in Significant and Irreversible Ways
HB 1294 would greatly burden and complicate the drafting and issuance of necessary air permits for all facilities requiring them,
not just oil and gas companies. For example, provisions of the amended Bill change the definitions of"modify" and "modification"
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and prohibit increases in emissions from any stationary source. This could create conflict with federal regulations and would
prohibit growth and expansion of any facility requiring an air permit, thereby stifling economic development and driving employers,
their jobs, and capital investment from Colorado.
Moreover, the proposed provisions on complaint investigation would appear to promote potentially frivolous and trivial complaints
by compelling investigation unless deemed "steady" frivolous and providing no standard of evidence. This will bury an already
strained Air Pollution Control Division ("Division") in complaint investigations and expose it to liability and litigation for missed
deadlines. Furthermore, our volunteer AQCC will be required to hear countless hearings regarding complaints that have already
been investigated by the Division and found to lack merit or to challenge penalties already assessed, while making complainants
parties to those hearings and requiring all allegations made by them to be treated as reliable evidence.
HB 1294 would create a private right of action to sue over alleged air quality violations with a one-sided fee -shifting provision that
allows an awed of costs and fees even when complainants do not substantially prevail in their litigation. These lawsuits would
also involve the AQCC as an involuntary plaintiff. HB 1294 would also create additional, duplicative penalty "aggravating factors"
that would double -dip and improperly magnify civil penalties to be imposed for alleged and adjudicated violations.
In conclusion, MB 1294 is deeply tlawed and incapable of reclamation in the short time available this session. The creation of an
interim committee does nothing helpful. It leaves necessary subject matter experts out of the process and relegates our most
challenging ozone problem -solving to partisan politics rather than use of high -quality data and modelling to craft targeted control
measures that can move the needle. HB 1294 would not measurably improve ozone. Instead, it would crash our air permitting,
promote a flood of litigation, and drive business and capital investment from Colorado.
We thank you in advance for your attention to this most urgent request for your assistance in opposing and vetoing HB 1294.
Respectfully submitted this 2°d day of May 2023.
Sincerely,
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Mike Freeman, Chair
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