Denver, CO
Clock is ticking to clean the Front Range’s dirty air by 2027. The region’s off to a bad start this summer.
Colorado has three years to lower ground-level ozone pollution to meet federal standards, and this summer’s hazy skies — caused by oil and gas drilling, heavy vehicle traffic and wildfire smoke — are putting the state in a hole as it’s already logged more dirty air days than in all of 2023.
“Our state has taken a lot of steps to improve air quality, but you can see it in the skies, you can see it in the air, that we still have work to do,” said Kirsten Schatz, clean air advocate for the Colorado Public Interest Research Group.
Two months into the 2024 summer ozone season, the Front Range already has recorded more high ozone days than the entire summer of 2023. As of Monday, which is the most recent data available, ozone levels had exceeded federal air quality standards on 28 days. At the same point in 2023, there had been 27 high-ozone days.
The summer ozone season runs from June 1 to Aug. 31. However, the region encompassing metro Denver and the northern Front Range this year recorded its first high ozone day in May, and in some years ozone pollution exceeds federal standards into mid-September.
The region is failing to meet two air quality standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The first benchmark is to lower average ozone pollution to a 2008 standard of 75 parts per billion. The northern Front Range is in what’s called “severe non-attainment” for that number, meaning motorists must use a more expensive blend of gasoline during the summer and more businesses must apply for federal permits that regulate how much pollution they spill into the air.
The second benchmark requires the region to lower its average ozone pollution to a 2015 standard of 70 parts per billion, considered the most acceptable level of air pollution for human health. In July, the EPA downgraded the northern Front Range to be in serious violation of that standard as the region’s ozone level now sits at 81 parts per billion. The state must now submit to the EPA a new plan for lowering emissions.
Colorado needs to meet both EPA benchmarks by 2027, or it will be downgraded again and face more federal regulation.
Of the 28 days the state has recorded high ozone pollution levels, 17 exceeded the 2008 standard of 70 parts per billion, according to data compiled by the Regional Air Quality Council, an organization that advises the state on how to reduce air pollution.
That’s bad news for the region after state air regulators predicted Colorado would be able to meet that standard by the 2027 deadline. The EPA calculates average ozone pollution levels on a three-year average, so this summer’s bad numbers will drag down the final grade.
“It’s not a good first year to have,” said Mike Silverstein, the air quality council’s executive director.
Smoke from wildfires near and far
Ground-level ozone pollution forms on hot summer days when volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides react in the sunlight. Those compounds and gases are released by oil and gas wells and refineries, automobiles on the road, fumes from paint and other industrial chemicals, and gas-powered lawn and garden equipment.
It forms a smog that can cause the skies to become brown or hazy, and it is harmful to people, especially those with lung and heart disease, the elderly and children. Ground-level ozone is different than the ozone in the atmosphere that protects Earth from the sun’s powerful rays.
Wildfire smoke blowing from Canada and the Pacific Northwest did not help Colorado’s pollution levels in July, and then multiple fires erupted along the Front Range over the past week, creating homegrown pollution from fine particulate matter such as smoke, soot and ash. Ultimately, though, the heavy smoke days could be wiped from the calculations from 2024, but that decision will be made at a later date.
Still, June also saw multiple high ozone days, and air quality experts say much of the pollution originates at home in Colorado and cannot be blamed on outside influences.
The out-of-state wildfire smoke sent ozone levels skyrocketing the week of July 21 to 27, Silverstein said, but it’s not the reason the numbers are high. The week prior saw ozone levels above federal standards, too, and wildfire smoke had not drifted into the region.
“Pull the wildfires out and we would probably still have had high ozone,” he said.
Jeremy Nichols, senior advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, also warned that wildfires should not be used as an excuse for the region’s air pollution.
“While the wildfires are out of our control, there is a whole bunch of air pollution we can control,” he said. “I don’t want to let that cover up the ugliness that existed here in the first place.”
Nichols blames oil and gas drilling for the region’s smog. The state is not doing enough to regulate the industry, he said.
“We actually need to recognize we are at a point where oil and gas needs to stop drilling on high ozone days,” Nichols said. “Just like we’re told to stay home on high ozone days, business as usual needs to stop. I don’t think we’ve clamped down on them and in many respects they are getting a free pass to pollute.”
Legislation that would have prevented drilling on high ozone days failed during the 2024 session.
However, the air quality council has approved two measures to reduce emissions in the oil fields and is preparing to send those to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment for approval.
One proposal would require drilling companies to eliminate emissions from pneumatic actuating devices, equipment driven by pressurized gas to open and close valves in pipelines, Silverstein said. Oil companies already are required to make 50% of those devices emission-free, and the federal government also is requiring them to be 100% emission-free by 2035. But Colorado’s proposal would accelerate the timeline, he said.
The second proposal would tell companies to stop performing blowdowns, which is when workers vent fumes from pipelines before beginning maintenance to clear explosive gases, when an ozone alert is issued, Silverstein said.
“There are thousands of these very small events, but these small events add up to significant activity,” he said.
Gabby Richmond, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said the industry supports the new regulations. She said operators also were electrifying operations where possible and voluntarily delaying operational activities on high ozone days.
“Our industry values clean air, and we are committed to pioneering innovative solutions that protect our environment and make Colorado a great place to live,” Richmond said in a statement. “As a part of this commitment, we have significantly reduced ozone-causing emissions by over 50% through technology, regulatory initiatives and voluntary measures — all in the spirit of being good neighbors in the communities where we live and work.”
“Knock down emissions where we can”
Meanwhile, people who live in metro Denver and the northern Front Range are asked to do their part, too.
When the state health department issues an ozone action alert — which is a forecast for high pollution levels — people are asked to limit driving as much as possible. They also are asked to avoid using gas-powered lawn and garden equipment until later in the day when the sun starts dropping behind the mountains and temperatures fall.
It would be easy to blame Colorado’s ozone pollution on its geography, global climate change that is raising temperatures, and pollution blowing from other countries and states, Silverstein said. But Colorado has a responsibility to do its part.
“We have 4 million people and a big oil and gas field and lots of industrial activity and all of the things related to human activity all in one concentrated location with a great mountain backdrop, but it comes with a bit of a price,” he said. “So it’s up to us to find the strategies to knock down emissions where we can.”
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Originally Published:
Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence discusses his team’s sixth straight win
Trevor Lawrence threw three touchdown passes and ran for one score in the Jaguars’ 34-20 win over the Denver Broncos.
DENVER — Time to recalibrate our expectations for this Jacksonville Jaguars team. Time to set a higher bar. Time to think about bigger things. Time to talk about goals beyond an AFC South title.
Like Super Bowl things.
How can you not after watching the Jaguars beat the Denver Broncos 34-20 at the cauldron known as Empower Field at Mile High on Sunday, Dec. 21? It was impressive and thorough and workmanlike, how the Jaguars ended the Broncos’ 11-game winning streak and handed them their first home loss in more than a year.
The Jaguars should believe a division title — they lead the Houston Texans by a game — isn’t enough.
The Jaguars should feel winning a first-round playoff game is only the beginning of a magical run in January/February.
And the Jaguars should be confident regardless of whether they have to return to Denver or play at New England next month.
“The fight of this team,” veteran receiver Tim Patrick said as he shook his head. “It was our first time this year going back and forth against somebody and battling and the continued will to execute at a high level when the pressure was on, I’m definitely proud of the guys.”
Welcome to the party, Jaguars. The Super Bowl Contender Party.
Hey, New England, Denver and Buffalo in the AFC and the Los Angeles Rams, Seattle, Philadelphia and Chicago in the NFC, make a place at the table for the Jaguars, who have won 11 games in a season for the first time since 2007 and have a six-game heater for the first time since 1999.
They … have … arrived.
“It’s not about ‘arriving’ — I knew what we had in OTAs (last spring),” cornerback Jourdan Lewis said. “I guess the rest of the league (now) understands who we are.”
Coen doesn’t care about narrative
Opponents should understand the Jaguars are hitting a new stride in their passing game (three touchdowns for quarterback Trevor Lawrence), have myriad play-makers (take a bow, receiver Parker Washington) and are all kinds of opportunistic on defense (two more takeaways).
But maybe to spice things up and feed the internal narrative that nobody believe in them, Jaguars coach Liam Coen found a new target last week: Broncos coach Sean Payton.
During the week, Payton said of the Jaguars: “It’s a smaller market, but you see a real good team.”
Not sure what being a smaller market has to do with winning in the NFL with revenue sharing and the salary cap, but Payton tends to stir the pot, even if it isn’t on purpose.
You really never know where Coen is going to take a press conference. To get the briefing going, I threw out an innocuous, big-picture question about all three phases contributing to the win. (And they did. The special teams was lights out.)
“Great team effort,” Coen began.
But then, he couldn’t help himself.
“Just thankful that a small-market team like us can come into a place like Mile High and get it done,” Coen continued.
Boom. I asked Coen if it really was a rallying cry.
“You know … yes. Yeah,” he said.
Whatever works. Back in Week 4, San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh was the figurative bullseye. Being a home underdog to Indianapolis two weeks ago was noted. Entering this game, it was Payton.
Manufactured motivation has been a part of sports at all levels since the first newspaper was published and first microphone was turned on to gather audio.
Look, as I talked to a long-time team employee earlier this month about, the Jaguars won’t get their desired respect even if they won the Super Bowl. The headlines outside Jacksonville the next morning would be more about the losing team.
Coen kinda embraces it, but sorta not.
“We don’t really care about the narrative,” he said. “I want that narrative to keep coming. It’s only helping us.”
Team getting better each week
You know what’s really helping the Jaguars? They’re a darn good team. A team improving each week.
This is why I won’t make a habit of writing the “Nobody believes in us. Nobody respects us,” card. I’ll leave that to players, coaches and fans.
What should be the focus is how the Jaguars took the lead over Denver for good with 4:33 left in the second quarter, part of a stretch where they outscored the Broncos 27-7.
Against the Broncos’ league-best red zone defense, the Jaguars went 4 of 5.
Against the Broncos’ league-best third down defense, the Jaguars went 8 of 15.
And against the Broncos’ league-best pass rush, the Jaguars gave up five sacks, but for a total of 14 lost yards.
The Jaguars offense is borderline unstoppable with a league-high 12 games of at least 25 points.
After consecutive punts to open the game, the Jaguars went touchdown, punt, touchdown, field goal, touchdown, touchdown and field goal to take control.
After allowing a Denver touchdown, the Jaguars’ defense went field goal, punt, touchdown, punt, fumble, field goal and interception over the next seven possessions.
As we head toward Christmas, this Jaguars season — unexpectedly entertaining and successful — is presenting you, the fans, the best kind of present. And it’s a ride that may not end until mid-February in Santa Clara, Calif.
“My expectations were already high,” Patrick said. “This was just another stop.”
Just another stop, but a huge stop on the way to the Super Bowl.
Contact O’Halloran at rohalloran@gannett.com
The Denver Broncos won the opening coin toss and deferred to the second half to bring out Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars offense to start the game. Interestingly, the Jaguars only sent out former-Broncos wide receiver Tim Patrick as their lone team captain on the coin toss.
Jonathon Cooper almost got a sack on the first play, but Lawrence was able to dump it off for an incompletion instead. Two plays later on third and four, Riley Moss chased Lawrence down for a sack to force a quick three-and-out. Denver wouldn’t do anything with their possession due to a dropped pass by RJ Harvey and a false start on Garett Bolles, so the Jaguars would get the ball right back.
The Broncos defense wasn’t playing to start the game. Talanoa Hufanga and Jonah Elliss made create open field tackles for minimal gains, then John Franklin-Myers broke through inside to sack Lawrence to force another three-and-out early in the first quarter.
On the first play of their next drive, Jaleel McLaughlin nearly broke one for an 80+ yarder but was caught by a shoestring tackle for just a 16-yard gain instead.
Two plays later, McLaughlin ripped off another nice gain of nine, then on third and one, Nix was stuffed on a quarterback keeper. They decided to go for it on fourth and inches where Harvey just barely dove forward to pick up the first down. The Jaguars would challenge the spot, but the call stood for the critical first down on their own side of the field.
Bo Nix then fired a sideline pass to Courtland Sutton who toe-tapped for a 17-yard gain into Jaguars territory. Nix went right back to Sutton for another quick pass for a 14-yard gain into field goal range.
They’d stall out from there, however, and had to settle for a 44-yard field goal attempt by Wil Lutz that doinked off the right upright to keep the game scoreless.
The defense seemed to keep the pressure going with Lawrence a bit skittish in the pocket and quickly found themselves in a third and nine. But he settled in on third down with a last second throw after having all day to find Parker Washington for a first down and a 21-yard gain.
After a nice pass breakup by Riley Moss on first down and a stuffed run, Lawrence was again in a third and long. The Broncos got another sack and fumble, but the play was blown dead. P.J. Locke was charged with a penalty because he didn’t hear the dead ball whistle to give the Jaguars another first down.
The crowd noise hurt the Broncos on that play to put Jacksonville into field goal range.
The first quarter wound down with the Jaguars scoring a touchdown on a Lawrence third down throw to Washington for 12 yards.
Denver, CO
David Adelman gets first career ejection as NBA head coach, Rockets beat Nuggets in revenge win
David Adelman’s coaching rite of passage wasn’t quite enough to spark an improbable Nuggets comeback.
Arguing calls in what he felt like was “a reactionary game to earlier in the week” when Rockets coach Ime Udoka insulted the referees after a loss to Denver, Adelman earned his first career ejection as an NBA head coach Saturday. Houston won the grudge match, 115-101, snapping Denver’s six-game winning streak.
The Nuggets (20-7) shot 40% from the field and 28% outside the arc in their lowest-scoring game of the season — an anomaly of a performance from the league’s best offense. But their defense was stingy enough to stay in the game for most of three quarters. Then Rockets guard Reed Sheppard executed an 11-0 run single-handedly to finish the third with an 82-66 lead. Denver kept scrapping but never fully recovered.
The margin was 17 with 8:40 to go when Adelman took exception to a no-call in front of his bench, watching Nikola Jokic attempt to play through a crowd. The first-year Nuggets coach angrily confronted the officiating crew out to mid-court even after being handed his second technical foul, which automatically results in an ejection.
“It seemed like he just kept walking away further and further,” Adelman said, laughing. “I just thought we would talk, and it turns out, they told me I had to leave.”
He received a raucous ovation from a sold out Ball Arena crowd as walked off the court to the locker room.
“I just felt like both teams were playing so hard, extremely hard. Physical,” Adelman said. “I give the Rockets so much credit. They crash the glass every time. And then we get two somewhat soft fouls on our best player. … Honestly, I was confused, and so I was just looking for answers. And I went out there to find them, and it turns out I had to leave. Sometimes, confusion can lead to destructive things. You’ve gotta think things through yourself sometimes. You go to other people, and sometimes they just don’t want to hear you.”
Jokic was held to 25 points on 20 shots and five assists while spending a large chunk of the afternoon sidelined due to foul trouble. Jamal Murray scored 16 points on 13 field goal attempts. Denver’s end-of-bench players briefly threatened to turn the game upside down in garbage time before Houston held on.
Sheppard went for 28 points, six assists and three steals on a 6-for-9 day from 3-point range. He was outdone only by Kevin Durant, who scored 31 and shot 5 for 6 from deep.
After only four days away, the Rockets returned to Denver with every reason to treat this game with playoff-level seriousness — not just due to the overtime thriller that left Udoka fuming, but because they also squandered a mid-week opportunity to bounce back against the lowly Pelicans.
It had been a costly week for them already, not to mention the $25,000 fine Udoka incurred on Monday for saying two refs “didn’t have any business being out there” and the crew chief appeared “star-struck.”
Adelman brought a chip on his shoulder to the arena Saturday even before opening tip.
“We were minus-10 in personal fouls with five minutes to go in the fourth quarter (on Monday). Both of our centers fouled out,” Adelman pointed out in his pregame news conference. “I know the narrative was the opposite, which is fine. I know I had no centers at the end of the game. So things work in weird ways. This game will be just as physical.”
He decided to take his turn chewing out the refs in the first quarter, working hard to earn a technical after Jokic was forced to sit down with two fouls. Both were called on loose balls while fighting for a rebound.
The officiating trio was headed by Marc Davis, who was also the crew chief for the playoff game two years ago when Murray threw a heat pack on the court in frustration.
“Marc is one of the best officials in the league. I thought the other guys, they did the best they could,” Adelman said. “I just felt, like I said, I was confused with the flow of the game. I’ve gotta be better than that, too. That game wasn’t over. I let the emotions get the best of me. But when you care abut your players and you feel a certain way, sometimes, you react.”
Houston made the Nuggets burn energy and clock just to get into their actions. Murray, whose offense has been consistently efficient, ran into one of his first clunky games of the year. Generating clean looks in the half-court offense was laborious. Often, Denver’s safest bet was to clear out a side for Jokic to play in isolation. But he struggled with the late double-teams Houston often sent to him. Durant played excellent help defense, as he did Monday.
Jokic picked up his fourth foul with 7:18 left in the third. Adelman decided to sit him for the rest of the quarter and have him ready to play the entire fourth, but that required a difficult survival game without him. Houston was already ahead by double digits.
The Nuggets almost weathered the storm. Morale was high and the margin was 71-66 shortly after Bruce Brown scored a second-chance bucket and chirped at Durant, his former teammate. But all it took was one heat check from Sheppard, and the gap was too wide.
“We had a game plan, that we were kind of down (the floor). Bigs were down,” Jokic said. “… When he makes one or two, that’s his superpower. That’s his thing. He’s gonna shoot more.”
Brown said after the game that Durant had crossed a line with his trash-talk during the game. Both players declined to get into the specifics of what was said. Durant seemed to relish getting a last laugh of sorts. He gleefully waved Adelman goodbye after the ejection and eventually treated Ball Arena to a cheeky celebration after burying a fourth-quarter 3-pointer over Murray.
The future Hall of Famer fired some imaginary artillery in the direction of Denver’s star guard, as well as the crowd, and danced all the way down the court.
Adelman, who referred to Durant as “maybe a top-five” offensive player in NBA history before tip, didn’t mind the gamesmanship.
“That’s what he is every night,” the coach said. “He’s a competitive guy. Talks a lot. He’s a hell of a player. I think its just two really competitive teams that really wanted this. … They’re coming off two really tough losses, overtime games. So there was going to be a lot of heat to this.”
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