Should we assume an executive agency, the Air Pollution Control Division (APCD) and its oversight entity, the Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC), is under the ultimate authority of the executive branch of government, or Gov. Jared Polis? If so, then the Air Pollution Control Division’s GEMM 2 scheme to trade in air pollution credits to satisfy 2021’s Environmental Justice Act is a perfect example of Polis’s free-market approach to public solutions to private industry problems.
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The Colorado Chamber of Commerce has weighed in on GEMM 2. In a letter to Polis, it praises the APCD for including the “impacted companies and other stakeholders” in its rule-making. However, the Chamber notes, the companies need a “pathway to compliance.” It suggests the price of the social cost of excess CO2 pollution should be $89 per ton.
At $89-a-ton, says the Chamber, the excess CO2 producers can stay in business. They will remain competitive. Otherwise, these companies, such as Molson Coors, JBS Swift, and Cargill Meat Solutions, may leave the state. In the case of Suncor, residents of Commerce City and north Denver might welcome that result.
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