Earlier this year, QuickTrip purchased the land where El Rancho sits for $6.17 million and plans to begin construction in 2026. However, the convenience store and gas station chain has agreed to allow the relocation of the El Rancho structure across the road if a new owner is found.

The 77-year-old restaurant and events venue is available for sale, with an asking price of $2.65 million that includes about $1 million worth of nearly-new brewing equipment.

However, the clock is ticking, and a new owner/operator must be identified within the next few months or the structure may be demolished.

“This new location boasts far better views of the Continental Divide, and high visibility for travelers on I-70,” said JLL Senior Vice President Stephen Markey, who, together with JLL Senior Sales/Broker Sarah Sparks, is marketing El Rancho for sale on behalf of Observatory Holdings LLC.

“El Rancho was originally built as a roadhouse for travelers, and that’s the legacy we all hope continues. It lost that visibility when Highway 40 was replaced by I-70 as the main route west.”

As part of the plan to move the building from its original location, developers Observatory Holdings have designated a lot for El Rancho in their development directly across U.S. 40, once a new owner/operator is identified.

“While there is no obligation to move El Rancho, we see this as a unique opportunity to breathe new life into this business,” said Jack Buchanan on behalf of the developers.

Buchanan, alongside Denver developer Travis McAfoos, purchased the restaurant and 5.4 acres of surrounding land out of bankruptcy in November 2022 before selling to QuickTrip.

“In addition to the improved location, placing it on a new foundation will eliminate a lot of the costly infrastructure issues that plagued the business in recent decades, and will set the site up for success for years to come,” he said.

Colorado-based Mammoth Movers was consulted to discuss the viability of moving El Rancho across the street, according to a Friday morning news release of the sale listing.

Mammoth confirmed that it is possible to move the historic part of the building, including the old post office, bar, main dining room and upper level. Structural engineers have also been on-site and confirmed the move’s feasibility.

Developers will not move El Rancho unless a new owner/operator has been identified.

“The costs associated with the move are substantial, and it makes no sense to undertake this unless someone has stepped up to own/operate the business,” Buchanan said.

“If no one is interested, it may be the end of the road for El Rancho.”

If a new owner/operator is identified, the developers propose to complete prep work on the new site, build a new foundation and move the El Rancho structure.

The new building owner would then complete renovations, giving them control over costs and preferences regarding finishing the property. Potential investors may also be available for the right owner/operator.

JLL plans to offer a type of “open house” for interested parties, including tours of El Rancho and the new location, on Aug. 27 and Sept. 3. Markey told The Post that the property has already sparked interest among potential buyers.

A new Marriott-branded hotel is planned in the new development site where El Rancho would be moved.

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The Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission, or ECMC, which regulates the oil and gas industry, said Wednesday that it issued what’s called notices of alleged violations to seven companies. The companies have 28 days to file a response and hearings will be held.

The ECMC announced in November 2024 that it was looking into reports that two Denver-area environmental consultants hired by Colorado oil and gas operators had submitted false data on tests of soil, groundwater and contamination at hundreds of locations in Weld County. The results are intended to show whether work to clean up spills and waste meet state standards.

The information stretched from 2021 to 2024 and was submitted on behalf of oil and gas companies. The ECMC has said it started investigating when operators notified the state of potential problems

ECMC staffers said Wednesday that the manipulated data ranged from wrong signatures to incorrect dates to results falsely showing that chemicals were below levels considered harmful. In a case the staff called an extreme example, levels of benzene, a component of crude oil known to cause cancer, was actually over the threshold considered safe by an order of three times. The benzene was in the ground, not the air.

“This remains a disheartening and heavy subject and as you will hear, our investigation has revealed further issues than were initially reported to us,” ECMC Director Julie Murphy told commission members during a hearing.

The investigation continues and it is taking time to determine what information submitted to the state is accurate or not, Murphy said. All the sites affected by the falsified data must be retested, investigated and brought up to state state standards.

Staffers said the ECMC has established additional safeguards to prevent falsified data from being turned in and is examining records for potential problems. A random sampling of documents should be completed by the end of September.

The agency believes there is no new risk to public health beyond the original conditions that prompted the work. Most of the sites are in unincorporated Weld County. A few locations are in the following communities: Berthoud, Dacono, Erie, Evans, Firestone, Fort Lupton, Frederick, Greeley, Johnstown, Keenesburg, Kersey, Milliken, Northglenn, Platteville, Severance and Windsor.

The ECMC issued notices of alleged violations to Kerr McGee Oil and Gas, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp., and Noble Energy, a subsidiary of Chevron USA. The following subsidiaries of Denver-based Civitas Resources also received notices: 8 North, Bonanza Creek Energy Operating Company, Crestone Peak Resources Operating LLC, Extraction Oil & Gas and Highpoint Operating Corporation.

Eagle Environmental Consulting submitted data on behalf of Chevron and Civitas Resources, according to the ECMC. Tasman Geosciences submitted information on behalf of Occidental Petroleum.

A spokesman for Tasman said the company notified Occidental when it first became aware of issues with the data. The oil and gas operator then contacted the state, the ECMC said.

“When Civitas Resources learned of the falsified reports by our third-party contractor, we notified the ECMC and conducted our own internal audit to understand the extent of the wrongdoing by the individual assigned to our compliance,” the company said in an email.

Civitas is quickly seeking to remedy the contractor’s failures and create new requirements to prevent this from happening again, the company added.

Occidental is reviewing the notice from the ECMC, spokeswoman Jennifer Brice said. The company was told by a third-party consultant in late 2024 that one of its employees had altered data related to some of its sites, she said.

“We promptly reported the issue to the ECMC and immediately began working with regulators to remedy the issue,” Brice said. “We are committed to ensuring that everything submitted on behalf of Oxy is accurate.”

Chevron said when it became aware of the falsified information, it launched an investigation, disclosed a list of potentially affected locations to the ECMC, hired additional personnel to review contractors’ reports and increased its audits of laboratory reports and third-party consultants.

“We remain committed to conducting business in full compliance with the laws and regulations in Colorado, as well as in all other jurisdictions in which we do business,” Chevron said in a statement.

The ECMC referred the matter to criminal prosecutors for further review and said it will cooperate with the appropriate law enforcement as requested.

Updated July 23, 2025, at 4:33 p.m. to add comment.

The bill, ushered through Congress by Republican leadership and signed by Trump Friday, includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, slashes spending on Medicaid, and creates temporary tax deductions for overtime and tipped income. It includes $170 billion for immigrant detention and for new personnel for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Planned Parenthood faces a prohibition on receiving Medicaid payments for a year. New parents can set up a new type of children’s savings account. The federal government will dramatically roll back clean energy tax credits — including those that help people buy electric vehicles — while expanding another credit for a certain kind of coal.

The tax breaks will translate to savings for most earners, with the largest benefits skewing toward the wealthiest residents.

The bill makes tax reductions passed during Trump’s first term permanent. But tens of thousands of people are at risk of losing Medicaid and food assistance in the next few years.

How Colorado’s members of Congress voted on the Trump tax bill — and what they’re saying

For Colorado, the bill means drastic changes to state finances that may require lawmakers to return to the Capitol in the coming months to deal with the fallout. State revenue is projected to fall by as much as $800 million by the end of its 2025 fiscal year.

"It’s going to be really hard," Sen. Judy Amabile, a Boulder Democrat who sits on the legislature's Joint Budget Committee, said of the task facing policymakers. "We are going to have to come together and figure out what (to do). An $800 million cut to our revenue is enormous."

Here's a look at how the tax bill will impact Colorado in different ways.

For taxpayers

The bill institutes a variety of tax cuts. Some are permanent, while others are temporary.

On the permanent side, the bill enshrines current tax rates and brackets that were rejiggered under the first Trump administration, preventing an increase at year's end when those cuts were set to expire. It includes scores of business-related tax cuts, including allowing businesses to immediately write off 100% of the cost of equipment and research.

As for temporary reductions: The bill creates new tax deductions for tips, overtime and auto loans for the next four years. Workers can deduct up to $25,000 in tipped income on their taxes; up to $12,500 in overtime income; and $10,000 on loan interest for cars assembled in the United States, according to Fidelity.

For Colorado state tax purposes, the overtime provision applies only for the current tax year, Gov. Jared Polis' office said. Earlier this year, the legislature passed a law requiring the state to continue taxing that income, should the federal government shift gears, but it takes effect for the 2026 tax year.

The federal bill also creates a temporary $6,000 deduction each year for people 65 and older. That will also expire by tax year 2028.

For families, the bill increases the child tax credit from $2,000 to $2,200 for most taxpayers, and the bill creates a new children’s savings program, called Trump Accounts, with a potential $1,000 deposit from the Treasury.

In Colorado, taxpayers would get total tax cuts of more than $10.5 billion next year, according to estimates from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Those making between $59,700 and $103,000 a year would save about $1,760 in 2026 from the tax provisions of the bill.

According to the University of Pennsylvania, the lowest-earning American households would lose about $885 a year by 2030, largely because of cuts to Medicaid and food assistance. The top 10% of earners are set to receive roughly 80% of the bill's benefits, the school estimated, while noting those earners pay about 70% of federal taxes.

For state revenue

The tax bill doesn't just cut revenue for the federal government. Its passage means less money for the state, too.

For the remainder of this fiscal year, which began July 1, Colorado officials are projecting a loss of between $500 million and $800 million, Polis' office said Tuesday, and hundreds of millions of dollars each year after. Lawmakers already made $1.2 billion in cuts earlier this year to balance the current budget.

The changes to overtime taxation account for as much as $250 million in lost revenue projected this year for state income taxes. The other big slice comes from changes to business tax credits, particularly related to depreciation, Polis' office said.

The bill will also shift new costs onto the state, and those will soon strain the budget from the other direction. The new costs include implementing Medicaid work and eligibility requirements and an increased expense to the state for overseeing food assistance. Those changes go into effect in the coming years -- some of them after the 2026 midterm elections -- so they won't have an immediate impact.

But all told, they'll likely require more than $200 million in new, annual spending from the state.

As for this year, the longer the state waits to sort out this latest financial gap, the governor's office said, the harder it will be to fill. Since Colorado's fiscal year just started, each day means there is less money to cut or room to maneuver to make up for lost revenue.

That, in turn, raises the specter of yet another special legislative session that would be the third in three years, ahead of the next regular convening in January. The governor's office said Polis is still evaluating the bill's impacts.

Amabile said she was bracing for a special session -- and for the "painful" decisions it will bring.

"What scares me is that we are going to have to make some cuts," she said. "And the best way to make the cuts is to come together and decide what is it -- what are our priorities? What are the most important things? And what are the most efficient ways to achieve the things that we all agree need to be protected?

"What I already see happening is silos (of organizations and causes) starting, to want to protect their thing, without any other context."

For Medicaid

The tax bill includes more than $1 trillion in cuts to planned Medicaid spending through 2034 at the national level. Most Medicaid changes won’t take effect for more than a year, but the state may have to increase its spending before then to prepare.

Federal spending on Medicaid in Colorado will likely drop somewhere between $11 billion and $18 billion over 10 years, according to KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is a nonprofit that studies the health system. The state, which shares Medicaid costs with the federal government, hasn’t yet projected how its own spending will change. In the state's last fiscal year, total spending on Medicaid was about $15 billion, including federal contributions.

In some cases, such as when people no longer qualify for Medicaid, the state will spend less. In others, Colorado will have to decide whether to make up the lost federal dollars or make cuts to either services for recipients -- who include about one in four Coloradans -- or payments to providers.

Starting in January 2027, the state will have to verify that about 377,000 people in the Medicaid expansion population under the Affordable Care Act -- adults earning up to 138% of the poverty line, who don’t qualify for Medicaid for another reason -- either meet new work requirements or qualify for an exemption. That will put significantly more work on the state and on counties.

Many able-bodied recipients between ages 19 and 64 will have to show they worked, attended school or volunteered for 80 hours per month. Colorado will have to build infrastructure for people to report that information and to monitor their compliance.

In addition, recipients will have to go through the full eligibility process twice a year, instead of once. Colorado can complete that process automatically about three-quarters of the time, but when it can’t, recipients will have to fill out a 16-page packet to keep their coverage.

KFF estimated that 150,000 people in Colorado would become uninsured if the bill passed, and an additional 40,000 would lose coverage if enhanced ACA subsidies in insurance exchanges expire this year, as scheduled. It made those calculations before the Senate amended the bill, increasing the Medicaid cuts, so the projections are likely higher now.

21,000 undocumented Coloradans could lose Medicaid coverage under Trump tax bill

A clearer loss for the state budget is set to come in 2027. That's when the federal government will start reducing how much states can tax health care providers, such as hospitals. Colorado currently charges the maximum provider tax rate of 6%, but the threshold will drop by 0.5% per year, until it reaches 3.5%.

States use the money they collect from providers to claim federal matching funds, so reducing the tax has wider implications. The Colorado Hospital Association estimated the state could lose about $10 billion over 10 years, leaving less money available to compensate facilities that treat larger numbers of poor patients. The state also uses the money to pay its 10% share of costs to cover the Medicaid expansion population (those earning up to 138% of the poverty line).

For food assistance

The tax bill will slash food assistance -- the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP -- by $186 billion through 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That's the biggest cut to the program since it began in 1939. It will do that by instituting new work requirements and by shifting new costs onto Colorado and other states.

Roughly 617,000 Coloradans, or more than 10% of the state's population, receive food assistance each month.

The program provides money for low-income people to buy food. In Colorado, a family of four with a maximum income of $62,400 a year qualifies. The benefits can be spent on a variety of foods but not alcohol, hot foods or other household items.

The bill will require the state to pay for more of SNAP's administrative costs -- about $50 million in new spending annually. It will also require Colorado and other states to start paying for some of the program's cost, depending on the scale of each state's error rate. In Colorado, that would mean as much as $140 million a year, according to the state Department of Human Services.

All of that translates to more Coloradans losing food assistance. According to the left-leaning Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 55,000 Coloradans are at risk of losing SNAP benefits because of new work requirements that expand on existing work rules in the program.

For climate and energy

When it comes to the environment and natural resources, the bill rescinds a vast swath of Biden-era investments in clean energy, ends tax credits for consumers who buy climate-friendly products, and undoes regulations and fees on oil and gas production. It also rescinds $267 million in Inflation Reduction Act money that's used to supplement National Park Service staffing.

The cuts reflect stark opposition from the majority of Republicans to many government efforts to address climate change.

The policy package will raise electricity costs for consumers, said Will Toor, the executive director of the Colorado Energy Office in the Polis administration. He called it a “remarkable act of national self-sabotage” that will allow China to lead the sector.

“We're talking about kneecapping advanced industries in the United States,” he said. “It's as if somebody was designing a bill to try to assure that the future belongs to other countries and that the United States will weaken its competitiveness in almost every advanced industry.”

Under the Biden administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, companies building wind and solar farms could qualify for tax breaks of up to 30% of costs. Those tax breaks now end after 2026 for projects that have not yet begun construction.

Susan Nedell, a senior advocate for the West for Environmental Entrepreneurs -- a nonpartisan group of climate-minded business leaders -- expects the cancellation of big projects in Colorado and nationwide, along with layoffs and fewer investments in solar and wind projects,

The bill also ends a swath of tax credits for consumers:

• Tax deductions for energy-efficient lighting and HVAC systems used in construction, expiring June 30, 2026.
• A tax credit for new homes that meet energy efficiency standards, expiring June 30, 2026.
• A credit for home renovations that improve efficiency, expiring Dec. 31.
• Tax incentives for geothermal heat pumps and other home efficiency products, expiring Dec. 31.

Federal tax credits of up to $7,500 for people buying new electric cars and a $4,000 credit for used cars will now end Sept. 30.

On Dec. 31, a federal tax credit for homeowners of up to 30% of the cost of installing rooftop solar systems will end.

A provision opposed by a broad coalition of Coloradans that would have mandated the sale of public lands was struck from the bill. But other changes remained that make it cheaper for oil and gas companies to use public lands.

The bill undoes the Biden administration’s increase in royalty rates for oil and gas leasing and rescinds mandatory royalty payments on methane produced on public lands by oil and gas companies. It also mandates quarterly lease sales for public lands in the West -- a change that eliminates agency and local discretion on whether land should be leased.

Industry leaders in the West applauded the bill, with Western Energy Alliance president Melissa Simpson saying it will “unleash the energy we need.”

The Associated Press and The New York Times contributed to this story.

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Two employees in the EPA’s Region 8 headquarters in Denver and one who works at the EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center in Lakewood are under investigation for signing the letter, said Kate Tribbett, vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3607, which represents Region 8 employees.

The “Declaration of Dissent” letter, which was sent to Zeldin on Monday, was published on the Stand Up for Science website, and shows at least 13 current and retired Region 8 employees as signatories. The letter accuses Zeldin of undermining the agency’s mission to protect the environment and human health.

“It’s an interesting way to celebrate Independence Day to put people on administrative leave for using their First Amendment right to speak freely,” said Britta Copt, president of Local 3607.

It appears the signatories who serve as union officers or stewards have not been placed on leave, Copt said. Those who have taken early retirement or a buyout have not been affected by the administrative leave.

The employees on leave will be investigated for using government time and computers to sign the letter, Copt said. The union will defend those employees’ rights to free speech and is demanding the EPA recall the workers and end the investigation, she said.

EPA press secretary Brigit Hirsch wrote in a statement to The Denver Post, that the agency “has a zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging and undercutting the administration’s agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November.”

Region 8 administrator Cyrus Western, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, personally spoke to the two from the Region 8 office who were placed on leave, Tribbett said. Those who were in the office were escorted out of the building by security, she said.

“That is very unusual and only done in the past when the employee was thought to be a threat,” Tribbett said.

The notice sent to employees said they would be on paid administrative leave until July 17, pending an investigation, according to a copy obtained by The Post. It did not explain why the employees were under investigation.

“During the time you are on administrative leave, you will not experience any loss in benefits or pay. You are required to provide a current email address and phone number so that we can contact you as part of our investigation,” the letter stated.

“Please verify your contact information with the individuals included on this email immediately. You will be expected to be available at the phone number provided above (and/or by any additional or alternative contact information you provide) during your regular duty hours in accordance with your currently approved work schedule should the agency need to contact you.”

The “Declaration of Dissent” letter, which was signed by 230 people and copied to Congress, accuses Zeldin of undermining the EPA’s mission of protecting human health and the environment.

“Since the agency’s founding in 1970, EPA has accomplished this mission by leveraging science, funding and expert staff in service to the American people,” the letter states. “Today, we stand together in dissent against the current administration’s focus on harmful deregulation, mischaracterization of previous EPA actions, and disregard for scientific expertise.

“Since January 2025, federal workers across the country have been denigrated and dismissed based on false claims of waste, fraud and abuse. Meanwhile, Americans have witnessed the unraveling of public health and environmental protections in the pursuit of political advantage.”

It lays out five areas of concern: undermining public trust, ignoring science to benefit polluters, environmental justice, dismantling the EPA’s Office of Research and Development, and creating a culture of fear.

Under Zeldin’s leadership, the EPA has reduced employment across the country, cut funding for environmental justice, proposed repealing rules that limit emissions from coal-fired power plants, frozen grants for clean energy projects and tried to undo a ban on asbestos.

Cindy Beeler, a former energy adviser in the Region 8 office, said she signed the letter because Zeldin and Trump are eroding the EPA’s important role in the United States. She said similar moves in other agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health, also worry her.

“The attack on science has been happening for years and years and years now,” Beeler said.

The EPA’s Office of Research and Development was world-renowned for its work on environmental problems. During her career, Beeler said it was the EPA’s research on methane that led to national policy that directed oil and gas companies to reduce emissions at their drilling sites.

“Without that emissions data, you can’t make a rule,” she said. “Scientific research has been shut down. You can’t just pick it back up in a month or a year and say, ‘Let’s start those Petri dishes again.'”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The violations pertain to well control, general safety requirements, oil and gas facilities operations, air, water and soil pollution, and natural gas venting, according to a presentation to the commission about the April blowout, which covered a school and homes near Galeton with pollutants and will take five years to clean up.

The ECMC served Noble Energy with a notice of the alleged violations, the first step in launching a formal investigation into missteps that caused thousands of barrels of crude oil, natural gas and fracking water to spew from the Bishop well pad. The company has 28 days to respond to the allegations.

Jeff Deranleau, the ECMC’s deputy director of operations, said the commission’s investigation could lead to fines and other enforcement actions for the company. The investigation could take months, and the penalties will be negotiated between the state and Chevron. The seven-member ECMC board must give final approval of any penalties.

The decision to pursue an investigation into rule violations follows Chevron’s submission of a root-cause analysis on June 10 that pinned blame on a subcontractor and also on its employees for improperly installing equipment at the wellhead to regulate the flow of oil, gas and water from the ground.

The company’s two-part explanation said the blowout happened during a period after fracking had been finished and before extraction began.

But the ECMC’s notice of alleged violations did not name the subcontractor nor any other individuals working for Noble Energy or Chevron.

“I want to note that, importantly, regardless of who or what causes an accident, spill, leak or other incident on an oil and gas location, the ECMC holds the operator of record accountable for the operations conducted on their location as the control of the location is solely in their hands,” Deranleau said.

Noble Energy, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron, holds the drilling permit.

Patty Errico, a Chevron spokeswoman based in Colorado, said in an email that the company was reviewing the violation notice. The cleanup and remediation continue, and the company will cooperate with federal and state agencies, she said.

“We understand that rebuilding trust takes time and sustained effort. We remain committed to open, ongoing dialogue and to supporting the residents of Galeton as we move forward — together,” Errico’s statement said.

The state’s notice alleges that Chevron failed to prevent oil, gas and water from flowing uncontrolled from the well and failed to follow general safety requirements, leading to at least one worker’s injury when the blowout happened, according to the document.

As for the pollution violations, the blowout spread contaminants to a school, homes, farmland, surface waters, wildlife habitat and livestock, the notice of alleged violations stated. The company failed to prevent the pollution and its adverse impacts.

The blowout also violated the water quality standards established for oil and gas operations after Chevron built an unlined pit to retain runoff from the blowout.

Finally, the notice alleges that Chevron vented natural gas from the well, which is a violation of state rules.

The blowout was one of the largest spills in Colorado in recent memory, Deranleau told the commission.

“Well-control incidents are rare,” Deranleau said. “The specific cause of this incident, as reported by Chevron, is related directly to proprietary equipment and improper assembly of the equipment, meaning it’s not even the same root cause of other well control incidents that have happened in the past in Colorado or elsewhere.”

After the blowout, the ECMC sent a notice to 42 other oil and gas operators in Colorado, advising them of the incident and asking each company to report to the state how it handles equipment installation between fracking and extraction.

Their responses and the ongoing investigation into the Bishop well blowout could lead to policy changes, said Mike Leonard, the ECMC’s quality assurance/quality control manager.

The massive blowout occurred at 5:50 p.m. April 6 at the Bishop well south of Weld County Road 74, near Galeton, about 14 miles east of Greeley. It lasted five days, leading to the closure of Galeton Elementary School and the evacuation of 14 families. One worker suffered a broken leg when a piece of equipment fell on him during the incident, Deranleau said.

The blowout spewed 20,000 barrels of water and 5,000 barrels of hydrocarbons into the air, and those liquids covered the school, homes and other structures within a 1.5-mile radius of the well — an area that covers seven square miles, or 4,500 acres.

Toxic chemicals, including benzene, hung in the air, flowed into ponds and streams and seeped into the groundwater.

The state has divided that area into 300 parcels that each have a specific remediation plan, and the ECMC expects the cleanup to last through 2030.

So far, the ECMC has received 730 surface water samples, 2,203 soil samples and 475 air samples, said Kyle Waggoner, the commission’s east environmental supervisor. The agency is also conducting tests on the surfaces of the school, homes and other structures that have been cleaned to make sure all hazardous pollutants have been removed.

“How do we make this a successful remediation site? In other words, how do you eat an elephant?” Waggoner said.

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Colorado, which had adopted California’s rules two years ago, quickly joined California and nine other states in a lawsuit to challenge the move.

Trump signed a resolution that was approved by Congress last month that aims to quash the country’s most aggressive attempt to phase out gas-powered cars, which are a leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country. Trump also signed measures to overturn state policies that curb tailpipe emissions in certain vehicles and smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks.

“The Trump administration’s attack on clean air is breathtaking,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a news release announcing the lawsuit. “We’re in court to defend Colorado’s cost-effective clean car program, which was implemented to improve air quality, reduce harmful ozone pollution, and increase choices that Coloradans have when purchasing an electric vehicle.”

The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission partially adopted California’s rules in 2023, which was allowed under the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations.

In Colorado, the clean cars standards would have required auto manufacturers to make and sell more electric vehicles starting with model year 2027 and increasing each year until 2032, when 82% of all vehicles sold in the state were to be electric. The standard also required new conventional cars and passenger trucks to lower tailpipe emissions.

Colorado’s adoption of California’s Advanced Clean Truck standards also required medium- and heavy-duty truck manufacturers to sell an increasing percentage of zero-emission vehicles starting in 2027.

Colorado also adopted California’s Heavy-Duty Low Nitrogen Oxides rule requiring heavy-duty truck manufacturers to make cleaner heavy-duty trucks for sale or lease in this state starting in 2027.

Colorado’s clean cars rule was not as stringent as California’s because it did not block all sales of gas-powered vehicles.

Still, the state is pushing zero-emission vehicles as it strives to eliminate almost all greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Gov. Jared Polis has said he wants more than 2 million electric cars and trucks on the roads by 2035.

But Colorado will not be able to enforce its rules if the California standards are blocked by the president.

Transportation is the leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions, and cars and trucks account for 80% of those transportation emissions. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide build up in the atmosphere, trapping heat and causing global warming. Those rising temperatures are responsible for droughts, hotter summers and more intense wildfires in Colorado.

The pollution also creates ground-level ozone when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds — emissions from vehicles — bake in the heat and form a brown smog over the Front Range. That ozone pollution is an ongoing challenge for the Front Range, which is in severe violation of federal air quality standards. It also makes people sick.

Electric cars have proven to be popular in Colorado.

Electric vehicles made up 25.3% of new vehicles sold in the state in the third quarter of 2024, placing Colorado ahead of California in EV sales. The state has also been investing in infrastructure to support the rising popularity.

The Republican rollback of California’s rules, the proposed elimination of federal tax credits for EV purchases, and tariffs on automakers throw chaos into the auto market and environmental efforts, Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office, said last month in an interview with The Denver Post.

“There are a lot of wild cards out there,” Toor said. “It’s pretty upsetting to see a federal government that is trying to increase costs to consumers and seems very excited about creating economic disruption and chaos.”

Trump’s signing of the resolutions comes as he has pledged to revive American auto manufacturing and boost oil and gas drilling.

The move follows other steps the Trump administration has taken to roll back rules that aim to protect air and water and reduce emissions that cause climate change.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed repealing rules that limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas.

Dan Becker with the Center for Biological Diversity said the signing of the resolutions was “Trump’s latest betrayal of democracy.”

“Signing this bill is a flagrant abuse of the law to reward Big Oil and Big Auto corporations at the expense of everyday people’s health and their wallets,” Becker said in a statement.

California, which has some of the nation’s worst air pollution, has been able to seek waivers for decades from the EPA, allowing it to adopt stricter emissions standards than the federal government. Other states were allowed to adopt California’s standards as an alternative to those outlined in the Clean Air Act.

In his first term, Trump revoked California’s ability to enforce its standards, but Democratic President Joe Biden reinstated it in 2022. Trump has not yet sought to revoke it again.

Republicans have long criticized those waivers and earlier this year opted to use the Congressional Review Act, a law aimed at improving congressional oversight of actions by federal agencies, to try to block the rules.

That’s despite a finding from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan congressional watchdog, that California’s standards cannot legally be blocked using the Congressional Review Act. The Senate parliamentarian agreed with that finding.

And it’s the use of that Congressional Review Act that California, Colorado and other states are challenging in the lawsuit.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Updated 10:30 a.m. June 13, 2025: This story has been updated to clarify gas-powered cars’ contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.

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The company submitted its root-cause analysis to the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission on Tuesday and then released a two-point explanation, saying an on-site contractor performed “improper assembly of the installation equipment for the production tree.”

A production tree is a mechanical structure placed on top of a wellhead after drilling and serves multiple purposes, including regulating the flow of oil, gas and water from the well, said Patricia Errico, a Chevron spokeswoman based in Colorado.

Chevron also blamed “inadequate setting of the barrier (tubing hanger assembly) designed to prevent the flow of liquids,” which is meant to serve as a pressure barrier to prevent uncontrolled flow of fluids, Errico said. Chevron did not blame the contractor for that work.

The commission’s investigation into the cause and whether or not enforcement action needs to be taken is ongoing, said Kristin Kemp, an ECMC spokeswoman. The state also continues to oversee Chevron’s environmental cleanup, which covers 1.5 miles surrounding the wellhead. A hearing on the blowout is scheduled for June 26.

“ECMC uses the root-cause analysis to further its investigation of the incident that will inform what enforcement action may be warranted and to determine what measures may need to be taken, if any, to minimize the likelihood of the incident occurring again,” Kemp said.

The company working at the Bishop well on behalf of Chevron was Houston-based Vault Pressure Control, Kemp said. Efforts on Wednesday to reach representatives of that company were unsuccessful.

The massive blowout occurred at 5:50 p.m. April 6 at the Bishop well south of Weld County Road 74, near Galeton, about 14 miles east of Greeley, while contractors were installing equipment to extract oil and gas from the ground after it had been fracked.

The blowout, which lasted five days, sent about 20,000 barrels of water and 5,000 barrels of hydrocarbons into the air, according to data about the incident. Those toxic chemicals caused high levels of benzene and other harmful chemicals to hang into the air, seep into the soil and flow into waterways.

Galeton Elementary School, which has about 142 students and staff, was closed for almost two weeks afterward.

Ten of the 14 families evacuated during the April blowout have returned to their homes as work crews continue to clean the spill from buildings and agriculture fields within a 1.5-mile radius of the well, according to the announcement posted on the company’s website.

The state has divided that area into 300 parcels that each have a specific remediation plan, Kemp said.

The remediation from the disaster is expected to extend into 2030, according to the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission.

Chevron, which is responsible for the environmental cleanup, has been working to restore the area for two months and is continuing to sample the soil and groundwater and monitor the air for contaminants, Kim McHugh, Chevron’s vice president of its Rockies business unit, said in a video.

“The data continues to show no levels of health concerns,” McHugh said.

In the aftermath of the blowout, Chevron deployed dozens of workers to the site. Houses and barns were wrapped in plastic as workers in protective gear scooped up contaminated soil and power-washed other buildings, said Andrew Klooster, a Colorado field advocate for Earthworks.

“The discrepancy between Chevron’s categorization of what happened and the reality is different,” Klooster said in early May after visiting the area where the blowout occurred.

When the blowout happened, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment deployed a mobile air-monitoring van to the area and it detected high levels of benzene, methane and toluene in the air. Those samples were taken between April 9 and 21, according to data posted on the department’s website.

A team of Colorado State University atmospheric chemists also rode to the site in their air monitoring van and captured samples that showed dangerous levels of benzene in the air up to a mile away from the site during the blowout, said Emily Fischer, a professor in CSU’s atmospheric science department.

“The way you can think about this mixture is it’s really a soup,” she said. “There’s elevated not just benzene — a key pollutant — but also other things like toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene.”

That soup also spilled onto the ground, and the clearing of the contaminated soil and groundwater is a more long-term concern.

As of April 25, Chevron has disposed of 7,194 cubic yards of impacted soils and 89,013 barrels of recovered liquids, which contain hydrocarbons such as benzene and toluene, and metals such as arsenic and selenium.

“The Bishop incident has the unique complexities of multiple ‘media’ being impacted (soil, groundwater, surface water and personal property),” the ECMC’s webpage on the blowout says.

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Re: “Trump’s presidency was never about deporting illegal immigrants,” June 1 editorial

We thought your editorial was excellent — as far as it went. Yanking the rug out from under thousands of foreigners who often risked life and limb to find a safe haven in America is an unconscionable act of heartless, anti-humanitarian gall on the part of Donald Trump and his minions.

Less attention has been paid to the situation of more than 60 Afghan families living here in Colorado on Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Many of these are persons who aided American troops during the decade-long war in Afghanistan.

It was bad enough when the U.S. gave up the 20-year fight against the Taliban and pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021. Now, the Trump administration is apparently ready to punish the people who were our allies.

While I was a professor of psychology at Metropolitan State University of Denver, I produced several films for classroom use. One of them was “Being Muslim in America–An Afghan-American Family Story,” and featured a family who escaped Afghanistan when it was occupied by Russia in the 1980s.

This couple and their children have made a successful life for themselves in Thornton and have created a support program called Muslim Youth for Positive Impact that has enabled many Afghans to integrate into our community and serve as contributing members of society. In May, some of these families received notice that their TPS would be revoked in July. This is an outrage that must not be allowed to stand.

If we similarly allow Trump to remove these Afghan families from Colorado and send them back to Afghanistan, where they will surely be killed or tortured by the Taliban, we have disgraced ourselves. What nation will ever trust the U.S. again?

We plead with Attorney General Phil Weiser to do something to halt this terrible deed.

Mary Ann Watson, Denver 

Mideast terror shouldn’t have reached American soil

Much has been written in The Denver Post and elsewhere about the Trump administration and ICE’s arrests of persons in this country illegally. Some have described it as “federal overreach” and “federal attacks on our community.” ICE officials have been compared to “Nazis.” Recently, the governor signed into law Senate Bill 276 (Protect Civil Rights Immigration Status) and one organization said the law “makes our communities safer.”

It is alleged that the individual arrested in Boulder is in the country with an expired visa and a pending asylum application. Is our community safer because ICE did not arrest that individual before he could attack a peaceful protest? Isn’t it time to tone down the rhetoric and have a reasonable discussion? Protecting every person in the country illegally does not make the community safer.

Ken Fody, Helena, Mont.

What happened in Boulder was horrible. What continues to happen in Gaza is, if possible, even more horrible. Thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of children and other non-combatants are buried in rubble, blown to pieces and burned alive. Could we please show the same outrage and compassion for them as we have for what happened to our neighbors in Boulder?

The accused in Boulder said it was revenge. The Netanyahu Regime in Israel says the same, for Oct 7.

Both are outrageous. We need to practice forgiveness, compassion, empathy and altruism, now more than ever. Peace. Shalom. Assalamu alaikum.

Jim Chaney, Denver

First, I want to say that I believe that the attack in Boulder was horrible and inexcusable. We all should be horrified by it. We also should be horrified by the fact that the Israeli Defense Forces have killed an estimated 50,000 Palestinians since October 2023. Some accounts say that the majority of those killed have been innocent women, children and older citizens. The Israeli army continues with the murder daily. They have also been starving the people in Gaza.

Gerald W. Berk, Evergreen

Are Carol’s supporters also her enablers?

Re: “Town in Mo. was solidly behind Trump; then Carol was detained,” June 1 news story

The New York Times article tells the story of Carol, an immigrant from Hong Kong now caught up in Donald Trump’s deportation theater. I say theater because Carol was employed by John’s Waffle and Pancake House in Kennett, Mo., another unnamed restaurant, and cleaned houses for area residents. All those employers were breaking the law, and they aren’t hard to find. Arrest them and grind them up in Trump’s justice system. They’ve benefited from ignoring the law for decades. Until that happens, ICE raids and sanctuary city lists are just for show.

David Stewart, Aurora

This town is not solidly behind Trump! If you are in this country illegally, you very well may be deported. Did you think that might happen? If you didn’t, why not? Consequences. Understanding that your family may be split apart. Why don’t people understand that what they do is their problem?

Deanna Walworth, Brighton

Work on downtown plans that serve residents and visitors

Re: “At a crossroads: Downtown Denver is waiting for its rebound,”  special report

I appreciate the efforts of our city leaders and the Downtown Denver Partnership to revitalize downtown. Accordingly, I attended the (June 1) festival celebrating the revitalization of 16th Street. Even better, I used an RTD bus for transportation.

The only disappointment was learning that the restrooms at Civic Center Plaza (our bus stop) were closed because, as explained by security staff, “the building is closed.” Really? Shouldn’t a transportation center have restrooms available for riders? This oversight contradicts frequent messaging from city leaders about improving walkability and reducing reliance on cars. Of course, the downside of public restrooms is the risk of increased vagrancy and drug use.

To mitigate this risk, how about pay toilets and/or admission restricted to those with an active RTD ticket? Attracting visitors to downtown requires proper amenities.

Robin Pittman, Denver

I plowed through your first two articles and your interviews with developers, planners, bankers and other people entangled in saving downtown. It was devoid of interviews of existing downtown residents or Denverites who are interested in the center of the city. I didn’t see a single mention of creating land uses that might serve human residents.

Certainly, no interest was expressed in regard to children’s activities. No ideas about where new residents might play catch or just sit and watch the downtown itself. It is obvious that whatever residents might desire relies on the various self-interests of the designers, planners, developers, and bankers.

Most of the recovery is aimed at more of the same. Luring remote workers to give up their lives to ensure the survival of buses, offices, high-rise office buildings, and the old downtown is doomed from the get-go. The empty buildings are warnings about the existing development. It is clear that people don’t want to join up with the proven disaster arising from the present approach. Yet the masters of downtown are trying to reproduce the mess that abides at the center of our town.

I think the city might begin to look at our neighborhoods to see what can be added to enhance the new reality. Walkable neighborhoods would reduce the funk blowing out of every automobile driving across town to buy an apple. I recognize the necessity of doing something about the quality of life to serve the neighborhoods instead of the developers’ pocketbooks. I wish the city would recognize the options of new ideas and different cultures.

It is our downtown.

Tom Morris, Denver

I noted with interest in Sunday’s Denver Post article on “Downtown at a crossroads” former Denver mayor Federico Peña’s strategy for recovering from the early 1980s economic downturn in Denver, which included “revitalizing downtown and the city’s neighborhoods, preserving historic buildings, cleaning up parks, reducing air pollution, curbing crime and bringing in Major League baseball.”

I think that would be an excellent program for addressing today’s economic malaise in Denver. I am especially intrigued by the idea of someone bringing Major League Baseball to Denver during the current economic downturn.

Steven Wallace, Lafayette

Recognize the benefits of reliable energy for our communities

As a native Coloradan raising my own family in Frederick, I’ve seen how the rising cost of living is forcing families to make difficult choices. My husband, a former educator in Firestone and now a local minister, works hard to provide for our family, but we feel the economic strain in our daily lives. Family trips have become fewer, our grocery bill has increased by over 30%, and day-to-day budgeting feels harder.

Reliable, affordable energy is critical to keeping life on track for families like mine, and the oil and gas industry has long been a backbone of our local and state economies. I worry that existing state and federal overregulation is pushing that industry, along with the economic stability it supports, out of reach. That’s why I participated in a recent telephone town hall with Congressman Gabe Evans, where more than 8,000 Coloradans joined to hear about the policies affecting our everyday lives.

Evans made it clear that he understands how important the oil and gas industry is, and he spoke about the need to reduce red tape, lower energy costs, and encourage domestic energy production.

Towns like Frederick have long benefited from responsible, in-state energy production. As families continue to feel the pressure of rising costs, it’s more important than ever for our leaders to prioritize policies that support domestic energy and the people who depend on it. I hope others in our community will continue to speak up and stand behind the workers and industries that keep our state running, not just for today, but for the generations we’re raising right here at home.

Rhianna Johnson, Frederick

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Legislators had to balance $1.2 billion in needed budget cuts with the necessities of preparing for a drier future — with the prospect of more extreme weather — and sustainably managing the lands, water and wildlife that define the state.

Officials from Gov. Jared Polis’ administration cheered the bills passed this session in a news release Friday. Polis said the laws passed by lawmakers will help the state keep moving in the right direction.

“This legislative session marks a bold leap forward in protecting both community health and our environment,” Jill Hunsaker Ryan, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said in the release. “From tackling air pollution and building decarbonization to supporting environmental justice and water security, Colorado is demonstrating that smart climate policy is also smart public health policy. We’re proud to help lead this work for the well-being of all Coloradans.”

Environmental advocates, however, said progress was mixed — and stymied by the budget cuts as well as a truce between Polis, legislative leaders, and the oil and gas industry.

“The energy and environment committees were tougher this year than they have been historically, both with budget cuts and shifting ideologies,” said Ean Tafoya, the Colorado state director for GreenLatinos.

Legislators passed a bill that added nuclear energy to the state’s definition of clean energy, despite passionate pushback from some environmental and community groups. A bipartisan measure, House Bill 1040, now signed into law, makes nuclear energy projects eligible for financing set aside for clean energy and allows utilities to count energy from nuclear sources toward their clean energy goals.

Lawmakers also considered moving up the deadline for sourcing 100% of the state’s power from clean energy sources to 2040 from 2050, but they ran out of time to introduce legislation to implement the change.

Tafoya expected that effort to return in next year’s session, along with a bill that proposes tax breaks for data centers in exchange for meeting energy efficiency goals.

Impact of oil and gas truce

This year’s session was the first full session since the oil and gas truce was agreed to by leading Democrats and some environmental groups in the last days of the 2024 legislative session.

Both the industry and the environmental groups agreed to drop ballot initiatives set for the 2024 election, while lawmakers agreed to drop bills targeting ozone pollution in exchange for a fee program paid by oil and gas companies to fund public transit. The truce also included a promise that nobody involved would run new ballot measures or legislation for several years.

That truce frustrated some environmental groups that were not part of the negotiations. It also hamstrung efforts to address greenhouse gases — the primary driver of climate change.

“The deal last session … really set us up for not being able to do much on the No. 1 cause for pollution and the climate crisis in our state — the oil and gas industry,” said Heidi Leathwood, a climate policy analyst at 350 Colorado. “The lawmakers in leadership didn’t want to touch anything with oil and gas with a 10-foot pole.”

350 Colorado, a clean energy advocacy group, instead pivoted to support legislation that would have required warning labels on gas pumps and other fuel products stating that using the fuel would release pollutants that cause heath impacts and climate change. The bill did not pass after Polis threatened to veto it, Leathwood said.

Another important bill to environmental groups that also failed would have required employers to implement policies to protect workers from extreme hot and cold temperatures.

“While there are some legislators that are really cognizant of the risk of climate change, and that it’s here and having impacts in Colorado already, we’re also seeing that a lot of legislators may not know the full extent of how fast this is moving and what we need to do to do our part,” Leathwood said.

More budget cuts are expected next year. Tafoya urged lawmakers to remember that addressing climate change will require investment.

“I think that we have to be really prepared to continue to push back on the expected cuts next year and make sure environmental programs aren’t disproportionally cut,” he said.

Lawmakers next year may also face pressure to draft state policy to address environmental protections rescinded by courts and the Trump administration, as when they passed a water pollution regulation last year in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

“I would hope that Colorado lawmakers would continue to step up,” said Henry Stiles, an advocate with Environment Colorado. “I would expect to see more of that in the future.”

A run-down of measures passed

Here are some of the environment and climate measures that Polis signed into law:

• A bill that bans the use of nonnative turf — like Kentucky bluegrass — for aesthetic purposes in new apartment and condo complexes. It also requires local governments to regulate the use of nonfunctional turf in a way that reduces water use. House Bill 1113 was the latest in a series of laws in recent years that have curtailed the use of such turf in an attempt to reduce water use amid long-term aridification.
• A bill that classifies wild bison as big game, which means they cannot be legally killed without a hunting license. Proponents of the bill said Senate Bill 53 was necessary to protect wild bison from herds in Utah when they wander into Colorado.
• House Bill 1269, which creates a process for the Air Quality Control Commission to set 2040 standards requiring owners of certain buildings to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
• A new law that gives state officials more authority over the herds of wild horses that roam Colorado’s Western Slope. House Bill 1283 gives the state’s Department of Agriculture the authority to implement a fertility control program to regulate the number of horses on the landscape. Federal authorities estimate about 1,400 wild horses are in the state — more than the 800 horses they say would be a sustainable population.
• A law that creates and funds a program that will collect and share data on snowpack levels and conduct research into better ways to measure snowpack and forecast water supply. “In Colorado’s challenging water landscape, we need all the tools in the toolkit,” Lauren Ris, director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, said in a statement about House Bill 1115.
• A bill that requires local government approval of large-scale fencing projects on Sangre de Cristo Land Grant lands. House Bill 1023 came at the request of Costilla County residents who were fighting the installation of a massive fence around El Cielo Vista Ranch.

That ranch is owned by a Texas oil heir, but local residents retain legal rights for access. The fence caused erosion and blocked wildlife movements, residents said.

“This will enable other counties to protect themselves from the destructive, obscene displays of wealth that the ultrawealthy who are purchasing large mountain tracts in Colorado can engage in in order to separate themselves in their private sanctuaries from the regular people,” said Joseph Quintana, one of the San Luis residents who opposed the fence.

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350 Colorado, an environmental group that advocates for the elimination of fossil fuels, says in its recently released report that it reviewed Suncor’s self-reported documents connected to the shutdown and determined there was a notable increase in the frequency of permit violations while the refinery was offline.

During that time, the plant released excessive amounts of sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter such as soot, according to the report titled “Suncor’s Commerce City Refinery: Looking Back to Plan Ahead.”

The report counted each hour during which at least one of those regulated toxics was emitted. So if all four were released during the same hour, 350 Colorado counted that as four hours’ worth of permit violations.

At the time, people who live in neighborhoods surrounding the refinery hoped that the shutdown would result in cleaner air, but no one had looked into the data, said Heidi Leath, a climate policy analyst with 350 Colorado.

“They just thought they were going to get a break from the pollution,” she said. “We were really curious to see if the air quality would improve.”

The 350 Colorado report also looked at the three-month closure’s impact on gas prices and determined that although gas prices spiked at the time, the refinery does not help Colorado maintain lower gas prices.

Efforts to reach Suncor officials for this story were unsuccessful.

On Dec. 21, 2022, the Suncor refinery’s hydrogen plant malfunctioned during an extreme deep freeze, during which the temperature in Denver dropped 37 degrees in an hour, eventually plunging to -24 degrees. When the hydrogen plant tripped, it caused a cascade of problems for Suncor’s machinery, leading the company to shut down operations for three months to make repairs.

Suncor refines about 98,000 barrels of crude oil per day during normal operations and supplies about 40% of the gasoline used in Colorado. The state’s only refinery also produces diesel, jet fuel and liquid asphalt.

As for the pollution during the shutdown, refineries often release more chemicals during a malfunction as they race to stop production without creating a safety hazard, such as an explosion from accumulating fumes. They also tend to release more toxics when they restart production and calibrate their instruments.

But excessive emissions from those situations often are exempt from regulation, Leath said.

“They basically give a free pass and they allow emissions to go up during these periods and put people’s health at risk,” she said of state regulators.

That hasn’t stopped the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment from opening an investigation into potential violations during the 2022-2023 shutdown.

In January, the agency sent Suncor a compliance advisory, which is the first step in an investigation into permit violations, said Kate Malloy, a spokeswoman for the department’s Air Pollution Control Division.

That compliance advisory covers alleged violations that occurred between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, including the shutdown and restart period from the deep freeze.

The agency will be looking into Suncor for exceeding its emissions limits for air pollutants, failing to meet required operating parameters and failing to follow required procedures for operating and maintaining equipment, according to the 57-page advisory.

In July, the state health department and the Environmental Protection Agency served a notice of violation to the refinery, the first step in an enforcement action after both agencies discovered violations during inspections between 2020 and 2023. That notice is still pending.

Government investigations into environmental violations can take years, and they also allow companies to negotiate penalties.

In February 2024, the state hit Suncor with a $10.5 million penalty, the largest in Colorado history for air permit violations. That fine was for excessive pollution between July 2019 and June 2021.

A $9 million fine announced in 2020 covered multiple air pollution violations since 2017.

As for gas prices and their connection to Suncor’s operation in Commerce City, they rose dramatically during the shutdown — 51% in Colorado. Drivers paid as much as $4.10 per gallon during the winter months following the malfunction. Winter gasoline prices are typically cheaper because of lower demand.

But 350 Colorado argues in its report that Suncor’s presence does not benefit Colorado drivers overall when it comes to the price they pay at the pump. The study found that over the past five years, Colorado has seen higher gas prices than 85% of the states without refineries and higher prices than 79% of the states with them.

“Everybody said gas prices would rise, and they did in the short term,” Leath said. “But would it really be true that we would have higher gas prices in Colorado if we didn’t have the Suncor refinery? To our surprise, honestly, most of the states that don’t have refineries have lower gas prices.”

Grier Bailey, executive director of the Colorado Wyoming Petroleum Marketers Association, which represents gas retailers, was highly critical of the 350 Colorado report.

“In summary, it seems clear the entire ‘report’ relative to gas prices is a hit piece designed to assuage a policy audience that there won’t be any impact on fuel prices if far-left fringe groups like 350 get their way,” Bailey said. “That is simply not something that is responsible to assert.”

Bailey said the comparison between average gas prices in Colorado and other states did not take into account things such as taxes and other fees that Colorado places on suppliers and distributors, which eventually end up in the prices consumers pay. Those additional taxes and fees amount to about 30 cents per gallon and are slated to rise in the coming years.

He warned that it would be a mistake to close the Suncor refinery because people would still need all the products it supplies, meaning fuel would be delivered via pipeline, rail or trucks, which would increase emissions from pipeline terminals, place more trucks on the roads and put an additional cost burden on consumers to pay for the transportation to get fuel delivered.

Finally, it was unfair for the report to fail to acknowledge the extraordinary steps the oil and gas industry, Gov. Jared Polis and others took to keep the state supplied with fuel during the shutdown, Bailey said. He accused 350 Colorado of omitting key points to bolster its position that Suncor should be permanently closed.

“Trying to dress up a policy position paper as a ‘study’ doesn’t impress serious people who are trying to keep Colorado’s economy moving,” he said.

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