This past summer, Colorado experienced the second-worst wildfire season in history, damaging over 400 homes and costing the forest service more than $145 million.
The smoke from these fires has had catastrophic public health effects, making Coloradans sick and threatening the lives of vulnerable populations.
Experts have attributed these fires to drought conditions and only expect wildfire seasons to get worse as our climate continues to change.
With a potentially grim future for clean air and a healthy environment in Colorado, we must do everything we can to clean up our air and prevent further environmental destruction.
Luckily, we have solutions on the horizon.
This Thursday, the state Air Quality Control Commission can adopt Low Emission Vehicle standards.
As transportation is the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Colorado, ensuring that our cars are more fuel efficient is one of the most impactful things we can do to protect the people and the places we love.
With Low Emission Vehicle standards in place, Colorado can take a significant step in minimizing the environmental and health burdens of climate change.
Our communities have suffered long enough as we have neglected to address climate change.
It’s about time we clean up our dirty transportation sector – because our lives depend on it.
Jackson Paine
Durango
