Almost as shocking as the Suncor oil refinery shutdown two weeks ago that’s expected to seriously disrupt Colorado’s fuel supply, is Gov. Polis’s acknowledgement of the situation as an emergency.
Our world is not powered by sunshine and giant lollypop turbines, Polis now grudgingly admits, but with oil refined into gas, diesel and jet fuel that moves people and goods across Colorado.
Due to numerous malfunctions caused by the holiday cold snap, the Commerce City refinery is offline until March taking 40% of Colorado’s fuel supply with it when the company’s supply runs out next week.
Polis promised during a Tuesday news conference to use every tool at his disposal to deal with the fuel shortage emergency.
“Our team is working to lessen the impact on Coloradans and our pocketbooks. We know higher gas prices are going to be a challenge until we are back at full refining capacity, but we are using all the tools that we have to reduce costs and increase supply.”
But so far he’s only lifted some state regulations on the trucking industry, which call into question whether the rules were even needed in the first place.
Truckers will be allowed to operate longer than 11 hours during a 13-hour day. That’s not all driving time. Truckers spend hours and hours and hours waiting in line just to pick up the fuel for transport.
Trucks will also be able to carry a heavier load of fuel into Colorado from other states.
That seems to be about as far as Polis is willing to go to address this emergency fuel shortage and lessen the effects it will have on all Coloradans.
Heaven forbid he actually shore up our fuel supply.
Actually, it’s a reminder of how badly we need to upgrade, modernize, and expand our #oilandgas infrastructure, ignoring energy panacea-pushers like Conservation Colorado. Windmills can’t reliably power our vehicles, even electric vehicles. We still need refineries #copolitics https://t.co/u9vydezRcf
— Sean Paige (@SeanPaige) January 3, 2023
Read his emergency authorization here.