Right now, Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) is deciding on new rules to further reduce methane emissions and hazardous air pollutants from oil and gas facilities in Colorado. These new rules will bring Colorado into compliance with federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidance. In many ways, Colorado is leading the nation in rules to protect our air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, more can be done.

The rulemaking will be a chance for the Air Pollution Control Division (“APCD” or “Division”) to pass state-level provisions that will reduce methane emissions and comply with certain parts of the EPA Methane Rule. Once passed by the AQCC, it can incorporate these state regulations into its methane state plan, which is due to the EPA by March 2026.
Specifically, the rule will reduce oil and gas pollution from a small device called a pneumatic controller, a valve in oil and gas operations that currently leak large amounts of methane and ozone precursors. While the Commission is proposing to retrofit these devices with non-emitting alternatives, the current rules will not go into effect in Western Colorado for four years, prioritizing oil and gas facilities on the Front Range — even though recent data shows that Western Colorado has one of the largest methane pollution problems from oil and gas sources in the country!

Recent data and research demonstrate that the Western Slope has a bigger methane problem than the Front Range. According to Colorado’s 2023 state emissions inventory data, approximately 70% of methane emissions from pneumatic controllers occurred outside the Denver Metro/Northern Front Range ozone nonattainment area.

Significantly, Environmental Defense Fund’s 2023 MethaneAIR data shows that methane emissions from oil and gas in the Piceance Basin is almost three times greater than in the Denver-Julsburg Basin. This makes Western Colorado one of the top 5 emitters of methane from the oil and gas industry in the country.

The new rules must help us fix this problem by eliminating natural gas-emitting pneumatic controllers by March 2029 and adopting a retrofit schedule that is equitable for all Colorado communities. The Commission must act with urgency to replace emitting pneumatic controllers as quickly as possible statewide.

Our Alliance also encourages the Commission to improve its air sampling process by ensuring sampling periods are short and accurate; otherwise, data could be diluted. Quality of data collection is critical for measuring the success of any new rules and for enforcing them. Lastly, we are also pushing the Commission to consider more protective leak detection and repair at gas processing plants.

Our Alliance has been pushing Colorado to be a leader on methane emission reduction for decades and we have seen much progress. By becoming an early adopter of these requirements, Colorado has the opportunity to further solidify this leadership by being one of the first states to phase out methane-emitting pneumatic devices in a way that is equitable and rapid for all communities statewide.