Rural counties challenge Air Commission rulemaking

Phillips County is among a group of counties in the Western and Rural Local Government Coalition that recently filed suit in Denver District Court challenging a small subset of new rules established by the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission (Air Commission) in December 2019.

The counties participating in the legal challenge include Garfield, Cheyenne, Logan, Mesa, Moffat, Phillips, Rio Blanco, Sedgwick and Yuma counties, all located outside the ozone nonattainment area of Denver and the North Front Range. These WRLG counties value clean air and data-driven measures that allow them to meet and exceed federal health-based air quality standards. According to the suit, a few of the Air Commission’s recent rules revisions threaten significant economic harm with little or no environmental benefit to Coloradans.

“We have banded together to provide a rural voice for the public welfare, environmental concerns and economic viability of our communities,” said Tom Jankovsky, commissioner, Garfield County Commission. “In this particular case, we have a simple ask of the Air Commission, which is for rules developed in a fair manner that recognize our needs as well as our successful efforts to protect air quality, without unnecessarily damaging our local economy.”

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