skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, February 28, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Trump hosts UK prime minister at White House for critical talks on Ukraine; Low marks for NC Congress members in 2024 conservation scorecard; Why carbon offsets often don't work, explained; Ohio regional transit group plans shift to 'green' hydrogen for bus fleet; 'Egg-citing' ID bill lowers barriers for raising backyard chickens.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Senate Republicans say they'll change the House's budget resolution. Trump questions whether he called the Ukrainian president a 'dictator' ahead of his White House visit, and environmental groups question EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin's call for deregulation.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The federal funding freeze has left U.S. farmers in limbo about their future farm projects, tourists could find public lands in disarray when visiting this summer, while money to fight rural wildfires is in jeopardy.

Colorado Groups Petition Leaders to Halt Suncor Line 1 Pipeline

play audio
Play

Monday, September 26, 2022   

More than 40 environmental groups are urging federal regulators and Colorado's Congressional delegation to put a pause on a pipeline project under way in Weld County, called Line 1, which would nearly triple the current capacity to deliver crude oil to the Suncor refinery in Commerce City.

Patricia Garcia-Nelson, Colorado fossil fuel just transition advocate for the group Green Latinos, said if officials allow the extension of Line 1 to continue, they essentially will be rewarding bad behavior.

"Suncor has a history of being a problematic operator," Garcia-Nelson asserted. "They have violated pollution limits. They had been operating under an expired permit since 2011."

Last week, the groups sent formal petitions to federal regulators warning the project will increase greenhouse-gas emissions and the toxic burden on an already heavily polluted community living near the refinery. The pipeline will cross the South Platte River, which supplies water for Eastern Colorado and downstream states, and a 100-year floodplain.

Suncor said it has no plans to increase capacity with the new pipeline, and argues it will reduce emissions from trucks carrying crude.

Garcia-Nelson argued the project will undermine Colorado's efforts to meet climate targets and realize goals in the Colorado Environmental Justice Act passed by lawmakers last year. She noted in the United States, more than 17 million people currently live near oil and gas facilities.

"And 1.6 million of those people are Latinos," Garcia-Nelson pointed out. "When we take even a closer look at Suncor, when we look at the communities around there, there's mostly Black, brown, Indigenous, people of color."

Because Line 1 replaces an existing pipeline, the project is going forward without public input on its potential impacts on communities, air and water quality, and climate change. But Garcia-Nelson stressed it will not prevent her group and others from trying to stop it.

"Without the normal public comment pieces, the decision is taken out of the residents' hands that are going to be directly impacted by this expansion," Garcia-Nelson contended.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
The National Cancer Institute has found red and processed meat consumption is associated with higher cancer levels. (Wikimedia Commons)

Social Issues

play sound

By Jessica Scott-Reid for Sentient.Broadcast version by Zamone Perez for Maryland News Connection reporting for the Sentient/Just and Climate-Friendly…


play sound

Virginia has certain restrictions in place for workers handling animal waste in order to avoid contaminating groundwater sources. But one expert says …

Social Issues

play sound

Alabama lawmakers are weighing a proposal to overhaul the state's bail system. House Bill 42, sponsored by Sen. Christopher England, D-Tuscaloosa…


People who raise chickens say the process can serve educational purposes for kids. (Cavan/Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

A bill in the Idaho Legislature would lower restrictions for allowing chickens in residential areas. The impetus for the legislation from Sen…

Social Issues

play sound

Minnesota's rural health-care landscape is described as being "stressed" - and the diagnosis could become grimmer if congressional Republicans keep th…

The American Immigration Council estimates 305,300 Connecticut immigrants are legally eligible to vote. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Community groups are coming together to expand voting rights to all Connecticut residents. The Connecticut Right to Vote Campaign says it aims to …

Social Issues

play sound

As spring approaches, faith leaders and advocates are raising alarms about inhumane heat conditions in U.S. prisons, especially in southern states …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan's congressional delegation has "aced" the National Environmental Scorecard, earning a perfect 100% in 2024. The League of Conservation …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021