Colorado is putting $13.9 million behind six industrial projects and one engineering study aimed at squeezing pollution out of factories, breweries and wastewater plants across the state, with the funding expected to cut annual emissions equivalent to pulling 14,507 gas-powered cars off the road. The money, announced by the Colorado Energy Office, lands squarely in Northern Colorado and the Boulder Valley, touching sites in Weld County, Longmont, Fort Collins, Fort Lupton and Windsor.
According to the Denver Gazette, the Colorado Energy Office announced the $13.9 million in taxpayer funds on October 21 to help companies reduce pollution at factories and industrial sites. The money is split between two funding streams: about $2.8 million the Energy Office pays directly through the Clean Air Program, and $11.1 million in refundable tax credits issued through the Colorado Industrial Tax Credit Offering, or CITCO. Companies can use those refundable credits to lower their Colorado income taxes or collect a cash refund if the credits exceed what they owe, per the Gazette’s reporting. The Clean Air Program itself traces back to 2022, when the Colorado General Assembly created it and transferred $25 million from the state general fund to get it running, the Gazette reports.
As BizWest reports, the awards cover six projects and one engineering study, and they push the state’s total investment in industrial-emissions reduction initiatives past $73 million since 2023. Several of the funded projects sit inside what the Gazette describes as a Front Range area that fails to meet federal ozone standards, while ColoradoBiz similarly notes that multiple projects fall within Colorado’s ozone nonattainment zone, where pollution exceeds federal limits.
Where the Money Is Going
The largest single award, $8 million in refundable tax credits, goes to Charm Industrial Inc. to expand its Fort Lupton plant with a pyrolysis unit that turns leftover wood and farm waste into a carbon-storing liquid, according to the Gazette. BizWest’s account describes the same project as a fifth-generation pyrolysis pad converting forest and agricultural biomass residues into bio-oil for permanent underground storage…