Date: February 18, 2026
To:
Air Quality Control Commission
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
4300 Cherry Creek Drive South
Denver, CO 80246
Via email to [email protected]
cc: Michael Ogletree, Megan McCarthy
Re: GEMM 2 Rules Must Meet Environmental Justice Act Requirements
Dear Commission Chair Jon Slutsky and Members of the Air Quality Control Commission:
The undersigned organizations, who have long worked to protect the health of frontline communities and our climate, write to express our deep concern regarding the implementation of Colorado’s Environmental Justice Act,1 hereinafter referred to as the EJ Act. This act created new legal obligations requiring the Commission to, among other things, ensure direct, onsite pollution reductions in disproportionately impacted communities (DICs). One of the main rulemakings through which the Commission will carry out these obligations is the Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy Management for Manufacturing, now in Phase 2 (GEMM2). Two years into implementation, GEMM2 has failed to protect Coloradans, and indicates a broader failure to fully enact the requirements of the EJ Act.
In its current form, the GEMM2 rule’s implementation of the EJ Act sacrifices the health of the communities around Suncor for the sake of business as usual. We ask this commission to fix this failing of the GEMM2 rule. As many of us stated in the 2023 rulemaking, we do not think that facilities that are negatively impacting the health of DI communities should be allowed to participate in emissions trading programs. Short of removing these facilities from the trading program, we ask the Division to require that facilities demonstrate full compliance with their mandatory emissions reduction obligations through on-site reductions before being eligible to participate in the trading program. This is consistent with precedent set by the Division in the midstream gas rules. Additionally, facilities that consistently violate air quality permits, e.g., Suncor, should be excluded from the trading program.
Organizations repeatedly warned this Commission during the 2023 GEMM2 rulemaking that the regulation as proposed would allow the Suncor refinery to achieve the majority of its reductions through off-site measures, leaving a hot spot of extreme pollution around the refinery. Based on the Division’s projections about the trading market,2 and Suncor Energy’s Reg 27 GHG Reduction Plan,3 these early warnings will come to fruition. Suncor will trade for credits to account for approximately 88,000 tons of CO2e, about 75% of its required reductions. Approximately 137,000 tons of co-pollutants that are technologically feasible for Suncor to stop emitting will continue to be spewed into the air that people breathe. In our opinion, the GEMM2 rules do not require enough on-site emissions reductions for these types of facilities, instead prioritizing company costs and profits over the health of communities. Beyond the health impacts, the economic cost of pollution on communities near industrial facilities historically has not been adequately covered in economic impact analyses.
The Cultivando monitoring study4 in collaboration with BoulderAIR near the Suncor refinery documented repeated pollution spikes - including hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and the presence of airborne radioactive particles. These findings are reinforced by the EPA’s 2023 Suncor Incident Analysis5 which concluded that the Suncor refinery has experienced recurring malfunctions, unreported releases, and operational failures that have resulted in excess emissions which impact surrounding communities. This community driven data underscores the continued pollution burden in DIC communities and the need for direct, onsite emission reductions with ongoing realtime, reference grade monitoring. The EJ Act defines DICs and requires that these communities receive direct, enforceable protections from pollution. The EJ Act made clear that disproportionately burdened neighborhoods must receive direct, onsite reductions in pollution. Frontline families need real relief through onsite improvements in air quality and protection from the cumulative impacts they have endured—often for decades.
The recent stakeholder meetings on GEMM 2 highlighted the need for a deeper and more transparent discussion about what full implementation of the EJ Act requires. The EJ Act created binding legal protections for DICs—including those living near Suncor—by requiring direct emissions reductions, enhanced public engagement, and prioritization in rulemaking and enforcement.
We appreciate the recent decision to abandon the State Climate Action Reserve Fund (SCARF) program, which did not guarantee onsite reductions in DICs as required by the EJ Act. As the Commission considers future approaches, it is essential that all compliance pathways focus on direct, enforceable, and facility‑specific actions that will finally deliver real relief to the communities most impacted by industrial pollution.
To fulfill the intent of the EJ Act, it is essential that the Commission adopt rules that are truly enforceable. This means prioritization of co-pollutant reductions by creating a cap on the percentage of facilities’ emissions reductions that can be achieved through the trading program. It also includes clear timelines, monitoring requirements, transparent reporting, and meaningful consequences for noncompliance. Without enforceability, the required protections for DICs cannot be realized.
It is also important to recognize that elected officials alone cannot speak for impacted community members. While local governments such as Commerce City play an important role, elected officials do not necessarily have the lived experience of residents who face daily exposure to industrial pollution. Impacted residents must have a direct voice in these proceedings. Many community members living near large‑scale industrial operations are unaware of the complex state‑level processes that shape their air quality. Barriers to participation—including language, time, access, and trust—do not reflect a lack of concern. Effective outreach must be directed to the homes most impacted by pollution, using clear and accessible language, interpretation services, and multiple points of contact. The EJ Act requires this level of engagement.
Records of outreach—including methods used, demographic and geographic summaries, feedback received, and responses to that feedback—must be publicly available. The response to comments should clearly delineate what feedback was incorporated and explain why certain suggestions were not. If outreach fails to reach key demographics or neighborhoods, additional outreach must occur.
The equity analysis required under the EJ Act was intended to bring community knowledge and qualitative data into decision‑making. This work must be results‑oriented and must avoid loopholes that allow key protections to be bypassed.
We ask the Commission to act with the urgency that our communities deserve. Compliance cannot be measured only in statewide numbers or credits traded on paper, but rather it must be felt by impacted communities through cleaner air, healthier children, and neighborhoods free from the constant burden of industrial pollution. As you fulfill your statutory obligations, we urge you to prioritize onsite reductions at facilities like Suncor and ensure that frontline families see tangible improvements in their daily lives.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Guadalupe A Solís
Director of Public Health and Advocacy
Cultivando
Shaina Oliver
Field Organizer
Moms Clean Air Force Colorado Chapter
Renée M Chacon
Co Founder
Womxn From The Mountain/ EJ Action Taskforce Member
Harmony Cummings
Director
Green House Connection Center
Patricia Garcia-Nelson
Colorado Fossil Fuels Just Transition
GreenLatinos
Rachael Lehman
Legislative Affairs
Black Parents United Foundation
Lauren Swain
Program Director
Physicians for Social Responsibility Colorado
Tykee James
Sr. Environmental Justice Campaign Manager
Conservation Colorado
Jim Dennison
Staff Attorney
Sierra Club
Christo Luna
Deputy State Director
Mi Familia Vota
Andrea Nawage
Chief Executive Director
Harvest of All First Nations
Sara Kuntzler
Colorado State Director
Mountain Mamas
Heidi Leathwood
Climate Policy Analyst
350 Colorado
Edward Behan
Outreach Liaison
Larimer Alliance for Health, Safety, and the Environment
Barbara Mills-Bria
President
Be The Change
Elise Jones
Executive Director
Southwest Energy Efficiency Project
Sources
1 See Colorado General Assembly, HB21‑1266: Environmental Justice Act.
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb21-1266
2 See the Air Pollution Control Division’s GEMM2 presentation to the Air Quality Control Commission,
Dec. 17-19, 2025
3 See Colorado Office of Information Technology. Hyland Cloud Document Portal: Document ID
47314291. https://oitco.hylandcloud.com/POP/DocPop/DocPop.aspx?docid=47314291
4 See Detlev Helmig, “Air Quality Monitoring Near Industrial Operations: High‑Resolution Measurements
of Pollutants in Commerce City, Colorado,” Atmospheric Environment (2024). Available at:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10962247.2024.2393194
5 See U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Suncor Consent Decree Incident Analysis (May 12, 2023).
https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-06/TD20-Suncor-CD-Incident-Analysis-2023-05-12.pdf