Colorado gets massive funding to combat air pollution

As we’ve noticed here on the Front Range, air pollution has become quite the topic.

In 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency designated the area a “serious” violator of air pollution standards.

Fort Collins, Colorado Springs and Denver were recently named among the top 25 cities in the United States with the worst ozone pollution, according to the 2023 State of the Air report.

There have been a few attempts to address this issue so far, including a controversial new measure that will ban gas-powered lawn mowers for many different users from the summer of 2025.

But more recently, Colorado got money to fund programs that can limit emissions going forward.

Colorado gets $328 million total to combat pollution

As Colorado’s reputation as a major air polluter has taken a serious hit, the federal government has provided Colorado with two massive subsidies.

According to the Denver Post, the first grant will go to the Colorado Energy Office, which will receive a total of $129 million.

The second grant goes to the Denver Regional Council of Governments, which will receive $199.7 million.

However, Colorado wasn’t the only place to receive grants this past week.

The EPA on Monday distributed a whopping $4.3 billion to states across the country.

All this to reduce the country’s CO2 emissions by 970 million tons by 2050.

What will the projects be?

The two projects are completely different, but have the same goal: reducing carbon dioxide emissions in Colorado.

The Colorado Energy Office project aims to reduce emissions from coal mines and landfills.

The other project, being implemented by the Denver Regional Council of Governments, is aimed at decarbonizing large buildings, which account for a third of the total carbon emissions in the United States.

For Colorado, the goal is to reduce CO2 emissions by 6.9 million metric tons by 2030 and by 148.2 million metric tons by 2050.