After generations of the fossil fuel industry polluting our environment, driving climate chaos, and harming our communities -- all while reaping massive profits for its executives -- we are at a tipping point.

The IPCC’s latest climate report cited more than 6,000 scientific references, consulted thousands of experts and government reviewers, and included ninety-one authors and review editors from 40 countries. It concluded that we have 11 years to make massive changes before we face devastating and irreversible climate chaos. The Trump administration’s own National Climate Assessment concurs, drawing on research from thirteen federal agencies, to conclude that: “The impacts of climate change are already being felt in communities across the country.”

Within this context, Colorado faces a stark choice right now: a Green New Deal that invests in renewable energy and includes a just transition away from fossil fuels, or the fossil fuel industry and its destruction of communities. We need comprehensive solutions to the climate crisis we are facing -- now is the time for our leaders to choose a side.

The math on climate change is clear. To avoid the worst impacts and have a chance at a stable climate future, we need to keep all fossil fuels - especially tar sands oil - in the ground. The intense industrial process of mining and refining tar sands oil is said to have five times the impact on the climate as a regular barrel of oil.

The Suncor Energy oil refinery is a prime example of how dirty energy production is hurting communities right here in Colorado.The refinery was purchased from ConocoPhillips for $150 million in 2003 and processes tar sands oil to produce diesel, jet fuel and asphalt. It sits near Sand Creek and the South Platte River in Commerce City, just north of Denver. Suncor has repeatedly violated its air pollution permits, releasing hundreds of tons of smog-forming chemicals each year. Instead of remedying its effects, Suncor has fought reporting requirements and a modification of its permits to refine dirtier tar sands oil, releasing more toxins.

The Suncor refinery has poisoned the over 80% Latinx, working-class neighborhoods nearby for decades. It emits 14.1 tons a year of hydrogen cyanide, a highly toxic colorless gas which attacks the brain and heart at high exposure levels. Multiple power outages in the past few years have also released toxic gases into the air, including hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide, all of which contribute to numerous health problems including respiratory infections, asthma, adverse cardiopulmonary events, and death. The emissions from the Suncor refinery have contributed to the area being the most polluted zip code in the country and led to a rash of health problems for people living in north Denver.

Unless the Suncor refinery is shut down, it will emit dangerous gases which harm people and impede the rest of the world’s ability to manage a climate-safe, equitable decline of oil and gas production. We demand a Green New Deal to stop the climate crisis and the exploitation of communities suffering from fossil fuel pollution.

It’s time for our elected officials who represent us to take a stand: choose a clean, fossil free future with a Green New Deal and shut down the toxic Suncor refinery.

Sources:
Fourth National Climate Assessment, Nov 2018

IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. October 2018

Suncor oil refinery spews 8.5 tons a year of cyanide gas over low-income north Denver neighborhoods, state records show

Diana DeGette takes on Suncor oil refinery over air quality fears

Report: Suncor Refinery Released Hundreds Of Pounds Of Toxic Gases

Last Chance to Comment on Suncor Refinery Permit Changes

http://denvermetrodata.org/neighborhood/elyria-swansea