DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado is under another ozone alert day and Colorado Public Interest Research Group is looking at steps Colorado can take to clean up the air.
CoPIRG held a meeting Wednesday morning under the hot and heavy skies in downtown Denver. It was the 57th day of air quality alerts for Front Range communities.
“We can’t afford another summer like this,” CoPIRG Executive Director Danny Katz said. “Ozone pollution can damage our lungs, exacerbate cardiovascular disease, stroke. So it is not the kind of thing that we should be breathing.”
But we are breathing it, and that’s something the group says needs to change.
“At one point we were the most polluted air in the world,” Katz said.
Transportation is a major part of the problem according to Katz, with gas- and diesel-powered vehicles being the main culprits.
Some of the solutions suggested by CoPIRG are increasing RTD bus routes, electric vehicle car share programs and more eBikes and e scooters.
“All of these things add up,” Katz said.
Transit agencies, local government and state leaders all need to come together to make the proposed solution work.
“If one piece doesn’t work then we are all going to be breathing dirty air,” according to Katz.
And that is one thing we will all regret.