DENVER — Unless the EPA issues a reprieve, many Colorado motorists will be paying a lot more for gasoline all summer.
In 2022 the EPA reclassified nine counties in violation of the Clean Air Act and ordered the use of reformulated gasoline there, starting in May and continuing to Sept. 15, the time of year when pollution is heaviest.
Governor Jared Polis made a last-ditch request for a waiver, but a reprieve is considered unlikely. Included in the edict are Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Greeley, and Loveland.
While reformulated gasoline contains a fuel blend believed to produce fewer emissions, Polis said it could cost consumers much more money (an increase predicted to be anywhere from 60 cents per gallon upward) and may have the reverse effect of adding to pollution levels.
That is because Colorado is in such an isolated area. It has only one refinery that can produce RFG and it makes only 38 percent of the gasoline the state uses. The bulk would have to be piped in via five pipelines, which normally reduce output in the summer, possibly creating a shortage. Then RFG would have to be trucked in from outside or Colorado would have to allow expansion of fossil fuel facilities in the state. Either solution would increase pollution at a time when the state was working to reduce it, Polis wrote.
Grier Bailey, executive director of the Colorado/Wyoming Petroleum Marketers Association, said the industry had been gearing up for the change, but he and other industry experts predicted the harm from the mandate would vastly overweigh the benefit to the air quality.
DENVER — Once more, legislators found themselves grappling with how to even the playing field between independent liquor stores and food retailers who sell beer and wine.
It was just a little over a year ago that voters approved a measure to allow convenience stores and grocers to sell wine. That followed a hard-fought battle over a Prohibition-era restriction that kept those stores from selling full-strength beer. With the battle seemingly won, stores quickly stocked both wine and stronger beer.
Since then, the liquor store lobby maintains, independent liquor stores have suffered huge losses, and, in some cases, have closed.
At the outset of the 2024 legislative session House Bill 24-1373 was introduced that would ban sale of beer or wine above 14 percent alcohol by volume, a limit that opponents protested. Under the proposed legislation, food retailers could not stock most wines preferred by customers, as the alcohol level in them exceeded that amount. It also essentially tossed out what the voters had approved.
As the measure moved on, an amendment upped the strength of wine to 16 percent so convenience stores would be able to sell 98 percent of their current product, according to Grier Bailey, executive director of the Colorado/Wyoming Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association.
Of more concern at that point, said Bailey, was a provision that displays be limited to one location, eliminating end-cap placements many stores now have. "It is subjective and unenforceable," he said.
The bill was intended to stop what their sponsors said is "the enticement of youth to drink." Also, they believed there is less potential for theft.
Some legislators also want adults to stop drinking so much. So Senate Bill 24-181 was born. It called for creation of an enterprise that would levy a fee on alcohol manufacturers and wholesalers. It would double current excise fees. The money would go into a new enterprise to help people control their drinking.
Critics say calling it the new charge "a fee" gets around the Tabor law requiring the return to taxpayers of any money the state collects over a certain cap.
The fee was proposed at 16 cents on every gallon of malt liquor, 14.7 cents on every liter of wine.
Retailers said that fee would have to be passed on to the consumer at a time when inflation already is cutting sales. The consumption of beer is already down, they say.
State Rep. Chris Hansen (D-Denver), one of the sponsors, said the measure would amount to only an added cost of 1.4 cents a can of beer or 8 1/2 cents per six pack.
Both measures failed. Bailey thinks the alcohol enterprise failed because it would have cost too much for the state to handle and keep to a balanced budget, which Colorado law requires.
He surmises the restrictions on food retailers' sale of malt beverages and wine didn't make it because it contained too many elements and was opposed by virtually everyone outside of the liquor stores and craft beer producers. Also, he believes, "The bill was fighting the clock at the end of the session...ultimately I think it was just too much and too late."
JOHNSTOWN — Crowds started lining up early in the freezing morning for the opening of the first Buc-ee's in Colorado. Soon the line stretched around the building.
Buc-ee's has become a cult favorite wherever it has launched. The customers chanted "Buc-ee's — Buc-ee's" as they waited to be let inside the supersized travel center and fuel station, located just off Interstate 25.
They entered, hands in the air in glee, grabbing carts and shopping frantically.
Buc-ee's occupies 74,000 square feet at the location with 116 gas pumps and 12 electric charging stations.
The Texas chain boasts of having the cleanest bathrooms in the world. With 14 stalls for women, 17 for men, and 19 urinals, keeping that status is a major task. It is accomplished by stationing attendants all day. Each stall has green and red lights on the door to indicate vacancy.
Buc-ee's attracts customers with its fresh-smelling food and gift shop offering gifts unique to its logo.
The city predicts 100,000 people a week will cross its threshold, generating $25 million in taxable sales annually and bringing 200 jobs to the area.
The company plans to expand across the state. New locations will be announced later.
DENVER — Two days after the opening of Buc-ee's, QuikTrip opened its second store here. It is the eleventh built in Colorado since 2022 and the corporation plans to start construction on five more stores in the state this year.
"It is the place to move now," said QuikTrip spokesperson Aisha Jefferson.
"The store signifies more than just a new location for us. It represents our dedication to our customers snd the community," she added.
An example of its community spirit, said Elle Jane of the Mile High United Way, is that more than half of the company's 232 Colorado workers contribute to the charity, with QuikTrip matching their donations.
Jefferson said their real estate advisors have done a good job finding the right locations for them. This one sits on a busy intersection of Evans Ave., and S. Monaco St. Parkway.
FRUITA — The Planning Commission here denied a conditional use permit that would have allowed for a new gas station, saying it "would not promote walkability."
When it came to a vote before the City Council, however, one member noted that the site was not in the middle of downtown, "not the most walkability area." The Council approved the request by a vote of 6-0.
DENVER — People who are pushing for a ban on flavored tobacco products such as e-cigarettes may be shooting themselves in the foot, according to a spokesman for the Colorado-Wyoming Petroleum and Convenience Store Association.
Without that alternative, statistics show smokers may go back to more harmful products, said Grier Bailey, in an essay for "Colorado Politics."
The most recent effort failed to get out of committee in the Colorado Legislature. It would have allowed counties to regulate or prohibit sale and distribution of flavored cigarettes, tobacco, and nicotine, although some of the state's cities have taken action on their own to do it.
"Leading researchers, including those from Yale, have shown unintentional consequences from flavor bans," wrote Bailey. "It drives smokers toward more harmful products, undoing the progress that has been made toward their elimination in the last few years. It also can lead to a rise in criminal activity."
The study showed, he said, that "For every 0.7 milliliters of e-cigarette liquid that goes unsold due to flavor restrictions, 15 additional combustible cigarettes are sold. If a vape user has a 7-milliliter tank and refills it twice per day, the user would consumer .21 milligrams of nicotine, whereas the typical combustible cigarette contains 11.9 to 14.5 milligrams of nicotine."
Due to the cooperation of public health regulators and industry leaders, there has been a reduction in teen smoking and vaping, he said. He said statistics show smoking is down 90 percent and vaping down 61 percent among teens in the last decade.
Originally published in the June 2024 issue of the O&A Marketing
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© KAL Publications Inc. 2024