Serving the community since 1906
VOLUME 118 | ISSUE 17
WEEK OF APRIL 24, 2025
$2
KIDS CELEBRATE EASTER
State’s fight against ozone turns to long term Colorado asks EPA to downgrade status to ‘severe’ BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN
nounced his candidacy at the start of the year. The senator, who lives in Denver, plans to remain in the U.S. Senate while he campaigns for governor, saying he’s confident he will be able to do both jobs at once. “I am going to continue to work tirelessly to both fulfill my responsibility to Colorado and to continue to help lead the battle against Donald Trump,” he said. “I have run for office before while I’ve been in this job. To be really honest, my schedule doesn’t change very much when I’m running for office versus when I’m not.”
Colorado is giving up on meeting mandates for controlling toxic ozone in the next few years, while doubling down on plans that recently passed rules will start to make an impact by 2032. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment officials say they are asking the federal EPA to preemptively downgrade the Front Range ozone nonattainment zone to “severe” from the current “serious” violation standard, when judged by the 2015 ozone cap of 70 parts per billion. Recent updated computer modeling of Front Range air shows continuing violations closer to 80 parts per billion, according to Regional Air Quality Council Executive Director Mike Silverstein. The RAQC is an advisory board and not a policy-making agency, but was briefed by the state about the downgrade request. That means Colorado isn’t projected to meet even the more lax 2008 standard of 75 parts per billion before 2027, Silverstein added. Yes, it’s confusing: The nine northern counties included in the nonattainment area are on parallel but different schedules to cut lungdamaging ozone, one schedule whose clock started with the 2008 regulations and another schedule launched with the tighter 2015 standards. The bottom line is Colorado is failing on both tracks. For the 2008 track, Colorado has submitted to the EPA for approval an improvement plan aimed at getting closer to the 75 ppb standard by 2027. On that 2008 track, Colorado has already been downgraded to “severe” violations. The first year of monitoring actual ozone for that plan was 2024, “and we didn’t start off well in our first year,” Silverstein said.
SEE BENNET, P16
SEE OZONE, P9
Lane, Colt, and Stella pause from hunting for the golden egg to pose for a photo with Ms. Bunny at Fort Lupton’s Easter Egg Hunt. See more photos on page 5. PHOTO BY BELEN WARD
Bennet sets off campaign struggle — for Senate Senator’s entrance into governor’s race ignites shadow campaign BY JESSE PAUL THE COLORADO SUN
Michael Bennet, Colorado’s senior U.S. senator, announced April 11 that he will run for governor in 2026, entering the race as the de facto favorite and igniting a power struggle among the state’s top Democrats over who will be appointed to his seat in Washington if he wins. “I think we can address many of the challenges that people are facing — from housing to education to health care and mental health care — and also make Colorado a model for the rest of the country,” Bennet said in an interview with The Colorado Sun
ahead of his announcement. Bennet was appointed to the Senate in 2009 by then-Gov. Bill Ritter and is now in his third term. A graduate of Yale Law School, he previously served as superintendent of Denver Public Schools and chief of staff to then-Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. Hickenlooper went on to be governor and is now a fellow U.S. senator. Before rising in Democratic politics, Bennet worked for the conservative billionaire Phil Anschutz as part of the Denver businessman’s investment arm. Bennet is the second big-name Democrat to jump into the gubernatorial race. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser an-
WESTMINSTER VOICES: PAGE 8 | CULTURE: PAGE 10 | SPORTS: PAGE 14
FTLUPTONPRESS.COM • A PUBLICATION OF COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA