RAQC Passes Draft Plan for Ozone With Late Amendment From Governor

The Regional Air Quality Council voted to send the draft of its State Implementation Plan for dealing with ozone to Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission during its August 5 board meeting. But first, the RAQC approved adding a preface to the SIP calling for further work on air quality, as well as an amendment proposed by Governor Jared Polis’s administration that asks for extra investigation into the federally mandated requirement to add reformulated gasoline when an area is downgraded to severe non-attainment.

In April, the Environmental Protection Agency decided to downgrade the status of the northern Front Range from a serious violator of federal ozone standards to a severe violator because the area failed to bring ozone below the EPA’s 75 parts per billion National Ambient…