Commerce City Councilwoman Renee Millard-Chacon screamed — sometimes with profanity — about the climate crisis and its impact on her neighborhood, saying she was tired and angry that she feels forced to hold rallies every year to get attention.
But here she was again, on the steps of the Capitol on a cold, cloudy and windy January day, pleading with the state’s leaders to create stronger environmental laws to protect Colorado’s most vulnerable and pollution-impacted communities.
“We know environmental racism exists. You’re killing us,” said Millard-Chacon, who leads the environmental group Womxn from the Mountain. “I’m honestly tired of regulatory systems that think we should wait. At this point, we’re not going to wait. We will go back to the streets because I’m expecting that Trump will make it worse.”
Millard-Chacon went on to call out Gov. Jared Polis and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment for what she sees as weak responses to the climate crisis that is causing more smog in metro Denver, more intense wildfires across the state, hotter weather and more contaminated drinking water — especially in disproportionately impacted neighborhoods like Commerce City, where so much of the industry that creates pollution exists.
“I know what CDPHE’s method is and I’m sick of it,” Millard-Chacon later told The Denver Post in an interview. “If we are going to meet the moment and face the threats from the federal government that weaken our cause, we’re going to need CDPHE to bring welcome relief and step up and do their jobs.”
As President Donald Trump and his new Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Lee Zeldin, begin weakening the agency, those in Colorado who fight for clean water, air and land say it’s more important than ever for the state’s leaders to fill the gap — especially when it comes to environmental justice and protecting the people who live in the state’s most polluted neighborhoods.
Colorado is in a position to stand up for those people because it is one of just 12 states that has a law defining environmental justice and outlining how state regulators should use it to influence decisions.
Since the Colorado Environmental Justice Act was passed by the legislature in 2021, the state health department has created an 11-person Office of Environmental Justice, an advisory board and a task force. It now requires businesses to complete an environmental justice impact analysis when they apply for air-pollution permits, and it maintains a database that helps the public track permitted pollution.
Most of the work is available in English, Spanish and other languages upon request.
Skeptical about Colorado’s commitment
But those who fight the daily battles over environmental policy are skeptical that Polis, his appointed air and water commissions and the Department of Public Health and Environment have the will to tackle environmental justice in a meaningful way.
Too often, state officials pat themselves on the back about their environmental justice work, but when faced with hard decisions that would curb pollution — such as denying more permits — they lack resolve, said Guadalupe Solis, environmental justice director at Cultivando, a public health nonprofit based in Adams County.
“Our reliance on them and our hope to rely on them is bleak,” Solis said.
Officials at CDPHE declined interview requests from The Post, but, in an emailed statement, spokeswoman Gabi Johnston wrote, “We are steadfast in our commitment to serving all Coloradans, ensuring every community has a healthy environment to thrive in — as well as acknowledging that some communities are more polluted than others and therefore need more resources.”
The department maintains that it is a national leader in environmental justice and that it was the subject of a recent EPA civil rights compliance review because of that status.
“The EPA came to us and said it was interested in learning more about the work that we have done in regards to air permitting and civil rights,” CDPHE spokeswoman Kate Malloy said in an email to The Post. “EPA said it felt Colorado would be a good example to highlight and that we could work together to advance this issue, so we voluntarily agreed to fully participate in the review in order to share more information with EPA. The review was not the result of a complaint, as it typically is.”
As for Polis, he already is pushing against Trump’s budget cuts that target renewable energy and is defending other programs that help improve the climate, said Eric Maruyama, a spokesman for the governor. He pointed out legislation and executive orders aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and statewide investments in clean energy.
“Governor Polis is committed to protecting Colorado’s clean air, keeping our communities healthy and safe, with or without the federal government,” Maruyama said in a statement. “Colorado has been and will continue to be a national leader in environmental protection, justice and on climate. No matter who is in the White House or Congress, Colorado will continue to lead on air quality and clean energy.”
While the EPA did not determine the state health department had violated people’s civil rights in its permitting and enforcement of polluters, it did get the agency to agree to sign a resolution pledging to change how it reviews permits for major polluters such as Suncor Energy. Those changes must be approved by the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission and would require companies that hold Title V air-pollution permits to undergo more public scrutiny whenever they want to make changes that could impact their emissions.
KC Becker, appointed by President Joe Biden to lead the EPA’s Region 8 office in Denver, said the civil rights compliance review was initiated by the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights because a study found Colorado had some of the highest COVID mortality rates among communities that also had high levels of air pollution.
The agreement was a priority of hers and she insisted it be signed before she resigned on Jan. 20.
Becker focused on Suncor’s Commerce City oil refinery during her tenure, ordering a study that determined Suncor had more malfunctions than other comparable refineries and twice sending its Title V permits back to the state for review after environmental groups objected to certain provisions.
So far, Trump has not appointed a replacement, but Becker said it is safe to assume that Suncor won’t receive as much attention from the EPA under the new administration. Which leaves monitoring and enforcement up to Colorado, she said.
“Critical backstop for clean air and clean water”
The state health department’s Air Pollution Control Division is capable if it makes it a priority, she said.
“I think CDPHE could fill in the gaps, but for them it would mean hiring more people to closely review permits,” Becker said. “It really will take focusing in on the permitting staff and being as transparent with that information and being as inclusive with the public as they can. It also means taking a good hard look at enforcement.”
But there’s a $1 billion state budget crunch and every agency across Colorado is being forced to make cuts, including CDPHE. On the environmental side of the department, only the Air Pollution Control Division has been targeted for a budget reduction, Malloy said.
The cuts include the elimination of a $38.5 million electric school bus grant program and 19 vacant positions, which would save $2.5 million in the 2025-26 budget, she said. No environmental justice vacancies are being put on hold.
In 2022, the EPA downgraded the northern Front Range to being in severe violation of national air-quality standards, which prompted the General Assembly to infuse the Air Pollution Control Division with money. The state expected more companies to fall under federal Title V air permit standards following the downgrade, meaning more oversight and more paperwork for regulators.
The division hired more than 100 full-time employees with that budget increase, but there have been fewer Title V permit applications than expected, Malloy said. So the division is eliminating those 19 unfilled jobs.
Joe Salazar, a former state representative who fought a gasoline storage facility’s expansion last year as an attorney for Adams County School District 14, said the state will be stretched thin by the budget crunch and must find creative ways to fund climate-related projects.
“We’re going to have to have leaders including the governor and others who are committed to environmental concerns and environmental justice,” Salazar said.
Over the years, the EPA has forced Colorado and companies that have ruined land, water and air to clean up, said Jeremy Nichols, a senior advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. Those cleanups include abandoned mines and chemical weapons manufacturing sites.
“The EPA is a critical backstop for clean air and clean water for Colorado. The state can’t do it all on its own,” Nichols said. “They’re the ones who wag their fingers at the state at times to say, ‘Whoa, you’re not doing this right.’ ”
But Nichols said he lacks confidence in the state’s willingness to crack down on polluters. He has been especially disappointed in a lack of resistance, thus far, from Polis in denouncing Trump’s tearing down of the EPA.
“I’d like to hear that he’s got us. He’s got our backs,” Nichols said. “That, in the face of Trump’s efforts to erase our environmental bedrock, he’s got a plan.”
Severe violator of ozone standards
One example of the state’s failure is the ongoing violation of ozone standards across the northern Front Range.
Colorado has known for years that it has dirty air, yet continues to record excessive pollution that creates the blanket of smog that contributes to climate change and makes it harder to breathe, especially for those who suffer from asthma and other lung diseases. Those failures also cause summer gasoline prices to go up for drivers because the federal government requires a different blend of gasoline and increases regulations for businesses.
And while Polis and his administration tout their environmental chops, their critics insist it’s not enough, saying regulators often cater to polluters when creating new rules that are supposed to rein in greenhouse gas emissions.
As one example, critics point to a 2023 rulemaking that required the state’s 18 largest manufacturers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but created what environmentalists describe as a pay-to-pollute system through which companies can buy and sell credits on an exchange market.
Meanwhile, the state continues to issue drilling permits for oil and gas companies, said Micah Parkin, co-founder of 350 Colorado, a group that promotes alternatives to fossil fuels.
Parkin said she hopes there will be a shift as Polis finishes out his second term, but she fears Colorado may have to wait on a new administration.
“Our state leaders and our regulatory agencies are going to have to take their jobs of protecting public health far more seriously than they are at protecting the fossil fuel industry,” she said. “But that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
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