DENVER — On October 20th, the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission unanimously approved a new Colorado Clean Car rule, requiring 82% of new vehicles sold in the state by 2032 to be zero-emission. The commission also directed the state Air Protection Control Division to begin a second rulemaking by 2029 for the later years of the rule, ensuring time for a future commission to review the adoption of a 100% clean car standard. This makes Colorado the first state in the U.S. to adopt a partial clean cars rule; seven other states around the nation have adopted the more comprehensive Advanced Clean Car 2 (ACC2) rules, which require 100% of new cars sold to be zero-emission by 2035.
Following the unanimous decision on the new partial Colorado Clean Car rule, Juan Roberto Madrid, GreenLatinos Colorado’s Clean Transportation and Energy Policy Advocate, released the following statement:
“Once again, the Commissioners fail to uphold their duty to provide the strictest rule to protect all Coloradans, especially those disproportionately impacted communities, in favor of political rhetoric and status quo to appease the Polis administration. By increasing the number of electric vehicles, we’re reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from tailpipes and improving our air quality for all Coloradans, especially for those black, brown, and indigenous Coloradans disproportionately impacted by poor air quality due to vehicle emissions.”
In April, the Air Quality Control Commission(AQCC) unanimously approved Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) and Low-NOx rules, which will require manufacturers of trucks, buses, and vans to ensure that a certain percentage of their new sales are from zero-emission vehicles and require stronger pollution controls on new diesel engines. GreenLatinos and the Environmental Justice Coalition (GreenLatinos, Mi Familia Vota, NAACP Denver, and Womxn from the Mountain), along with other environmental advocates, urged the AQCC to adopt the full ACT Rulea d Low-NOx rules. This will translate to reduced diesel emissions contributing to poor air quality that disproportionately impacts black, brown, and indigenous communities. With the new Colorado Clean Cars rule, the state is taking necessary steps to reduce pollution from the transportation sector, the largest source of climate-warming emissions. In doing so, the state is moving closer to protecting all Coloradans from poor air quality. Still, more importantly, black, brown, and indigenous communities will finally start to see improvements in air quality that will translate to improved health outcomes.
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About GreenLatinos
GreenLatinos (NOTE: GreenLatinos is ONE WORD) is an active comunidad of Latino/a/e leaders, emboldened by the power and wisdom of our culture, united to demand equity and dismantle racism, resourced to win our environmental, conservation, and climate justice battles, and driven to secure our political, economic, cultural, and environmental liberation.