CO is now off one of the EPA's lists? Politics-based science rather than science-based politics on climate. CBO says our Federal deficit is a bigger threat, send the CO Dems an email.
Don't say it never happens: Colorado recently fell OFF one of the EPA's lists.
It's one of those coincidences that happens from time to time. Not too long after actually being at the meeting itself where this was announced, I saw the article linked below.
I never knew it, but a few areas around the Front Range had been out of compliance with EPA regulations on carbon monoxide (NOT ozone, the other perennial EPA bugbear) since the mid-70's.
Only recently, probably due in large part to improvements in vehicle emission controls and fuels, see the article for more, has the EPA taken us off their list. Fort Collins was the last.
I remember being at an Air Quality Control Division Q and A session a while back to testify on an unrelated matter when I heard this. It was striking. I didn't know there was either a standard or a problem!
Good news for us I suppose, but it also makes me wonder. Will the Front Range ever be off the ozone list? There is a contribution from activities in the Front Range of course, but a large part of the reason why we have an excess of ozone is due to things beyond our state.
I mean, let's say we trimmed our contribution as much as humanly possible. With the EPA limits as they are now (and with their penchant for having a one-way ratchet when it comes to limits such that they only ever go down), would that be enough?
"Too often we have politics-based science rather than science-based politics."
Hear hear.
That quote comes from Prof Pielke of CU (though it seems from the interview he'll not long be there) in his talk with Caldara about climate change. I would say you could extend his claim to a whole host of other topics--COVID policy, for example, comes first to mind--but that's a whole other post.**
Let's just stick with climate change for now. The video is linked below and I highly recommend a watch/listen. I say that because it's important for you to have some counterpoint to the prevailing narrative.
Climate change is real, but how bad it will be and what its effects have been thus far are, at least to the extent that you see every news article tying unusual weather to it and every politician in Colorado (and beyond) justifying policy by it, not.
As you'll see in the video the strategy taken by those in the environmental movement has been to overplay the threat so as to make people more pliable, and it's working.
Everywhere you look, you see it. If it's not an immediate, existential threat, it's that climate change just caused that horrible thunderstorm with hail that ruined a town. It caused that flood, that hurricane, that fire.
As such, the need is clear: immediate, thoughtless, heedless action (and spending) is needed. This is the exact opposite approach we should be taking.
I say that because on our current path, we will not have adapted (yes, I say adapted here in lieu of fixed because this is a more reasonable approach) to the problem. We will have taken government money and made a select group of people wealthy while not doing much else.
It's a pity that those running this state have chosen to take the politically expedient route of ignoring and/or blocking out the voices that might bring some sanity and centrism back to the conversation, but it doesn't mean you have to follow suit.
Give the below a watch and put what you hear in your pocket for later advocacy and conversations with those who might actually listen.
**And remember this every single time you hear a politician talk about "the data" or "the science".
Send the link below to your state senator and rep.
Ask them why they spend so much time on Colorado's climate while absolutely and positively ignoring how the Federal government is mortgaging the futures of our children and grandchildren.
Ask them what they intend to do about it.
If they say it's a Federal issue to solve, remind them of all the money that Colorado has gladly taken from the Feds and used to fund their pet projects around the state.
If they say it's a Federal issue to solve, remind them that we don't have a Federal and state level atmosphere in this country. It's all the same body of gas. And as such, our paying huge amounts of attention to the atmosphere here in Colorado while our nation's finances rot from the inside doesn't make sense.
And remind them that they can speak up about Federal issues just as well as they can state ones. They do it all the time when it suits their ends.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/aug/9/growing-government-debt-is-bigger-threat-to-econom/