EPA pushes back on Senator's criticism

Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 4, 2006 at midnight

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Officials at Denver’s office of the EPA are standing by their decision to use infrared cameras to catch emissions leaking from oil and gas sites northeast of the metro area despite criticism from a skeptical U.S. Senator.

Responding to questions from U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who chairs the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, the administrator of Denver's regional EPA office said officials used the camera "to better understand the source and extent of various emissions."

The regional administrator, Robbie Roberts, also pointed out that the Denver region is in jeopardy of violating federal air quality standards for ground-level ozone in part because of the growth in emissions from nearby oil and gas development. Roberts called such a possibility "a result that we wish to avoid."

Inhofe irritated local environmentalists and even some regulators with his July 18 letter raising a series of questions about the use of the infrared camera on a tour of oil and gas facilities northeast of Denver International Airport.

The tour, reported in the Rocky Mountain News in June, was attended by several EPA and Colorado health department officials, including the EPA’s top enforcement official who flew out from Washington D.C.

In his letter, Inhofe implied that the use of the camera threatened the "trust" between industry and regulators and "gives rise to concern." He also wondered if private property rights had been violated.

Environmentalists complained that Inhofe’s letter was an effort to intimidate air-quality officials, who are scrutinizing the role the oil and gas industry plays in producing smog-forming emissions.

Inhofe, considered a powerful ally of the oil and gas industry, is perhaps best-known for suggesting in 2003 that concern about global warming amounts to "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."

Vickie Patton, a senior attorney with the group Environmental Defense, praised the EPA for not backing down to Inhofe in its response to his letter.

"It’s encouraging that EPA is recognizing that oil and gas pollution is a major contributor to harmful smog pollution in the Colorado Front Range," Patton said. "It’s unfortunate however that our public officials are spending precious time defending basic efforts to collect information instead of crafting clean air solutions."

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