Subcommittee Meetings

Governor Polis, Mayor Hancock and Lyft announced today that 200 long-range electric vehicles will be made available to rent in December for its drivers in Denver. You can read a news story about the announcement here.

In an effort to keep interested stakeholders informed of current happenings with RAQC programs, partners, and air quality news and events, the RAQC created The Air Monitor quarterly e-newsletter. You can read the fourth issue here. If you are interested in subscribing to the newsletter, sign up here or contact Sara Goodwin at sgoodwin@raqc.org.

In October, the Colorado Energy Office released a Renewable Natural Gas in Transportation: Colorado Market Study that provides a preliminary assessment of the state’s potential to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) from major organic waste sources – including landfills, wastewater, animal and food waste – for use in on-road transportation systems. The study finds Colorado’s RNG resource could replace approximately 140 million gallons of diesel, or 24% of the state’s total diesel consumption for transportation, eliminating approximately 1.4 million metric tons of CO2 emissions from fuel combustion annually.

To improve air quality throughout the state of Colorado, the RAQC is reopening the ALT Fuels Colorado program this fall to continue incentivizing the replacement and scrappage of pre-2009 medium & heavy duty vehicles, school and shuttle buses, airport ground support equipment, freight switchers, forklifts, and port cargo handling equipment. These funds are available to all public, private, and non-profit fleets statewide. Go to the program website for more information and to apply.

The Regional Air Quality Council (RAQC) and Colorado Energy Office (CEO) have opened the Charge Ahead Colorado application for electric vehicle (EV) and charging station funding. At this time, the RAQC has funding for both charging stations and EVs for applicants within the Denver Metro Area. CEO has funding for charging stations for applicants outside the Denver Metro Area. All charging stations are required to be networked.

An application guide, informational webinar, application and other grant resources can be found on the Charge Ahead Colorado Homepage.

The RAQC joined the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Colorado Department of Transportation, and the Colorado Energy Office in a statement announcing that it has revised how it will disburse the remainder of the state’s $68.7 million portion of the national Volkswagen settlement. The departments will allocate the remaining funds, totaling about $48 million, to aid in the adoption of zero emission vehicles throughout the state. You can read the full statement here.

The RAQC, and its Charge Ahead Colorado partner, the Colorado Energy Office, recently announced grant funding made to numerous organizations for electric vehicle charging stations. Also included in the announcement is Charge Ahead Colorado’s participation in a National Drive Electric Week event. You can read the press release here.

You can find a list of the most recent grant awardees here.

On August 15, 2019, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) received the 2019 Halo Award.  The award is presented by Health Links, a program at the Center for Work, Health, and Environment in the Colorado School of Public Health. The award recognizes one Certified Healthy Workplace Leader, the highest level of certification, that is going above and beyond to improve the health and safety of their employees, their employees’ families, and their community.  CDPHE was selected from more than 200 certified public and private sector employers from 8 states for its employee health and safety program.  

Also in the interest of improving employees’ health, this summer the RAQC’s Simple Steps. Better Air. (SSBA) program and CDPHE joined forces to create the CDPHE “Employees for Clean Air” program to measure behavior change and reduce ground-level ozone. More than 180 CDPHE employees across the state committed to take actions that positively impact air quality, including reducing personal vehicle trips. As part of this three-week program, participating CDPHE employees agreed to track their emission-reduction actions and transportation modes, as well as provide qualitative feedback through weekly surveys. At the conclusion of the summer program, participants were recognized and rewarded with prize packages and SSBA swag. Information from this pilot program will be used to design a sustainable program model that can be implemented at other Colorado agencies and partner organizations in 2020. If you are interested in partnering with RAQC for a program at your organization, please contact Sara Goodwin. You can get more information about the CDPHE “Employees for Clean Air” program here.

The RAQC’s Alt Fuels Colorado program was recently featured in the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project’s (SWEEP) blog on funding options for electric trucks and forklifts. You can read the full blog here.