Suncor’s Commerce City Refinery: Looking Back to Plan Ahead

Examining the 2022-23 shutdown through the lens of gas prices, pollution, regulation, and environmental justice

Soon after Suncor had serious malfunctions in December 2022, the company announced a shutdown of production. Many thought the surrounding area would have a break from the daily pollution coming from the refinery, but it soon became obvious to community members that pollution was continuing, and was worse than usual. Others thought Coloradans would be hit with higher gas prices. The 350 Colorado volunteer policy committee became interested in studying the data and this report is the eventual result of that project. Since this malfunction was not an isolated incident, the report also delves into the historical context of pollution, environmental justice, and regulations. To summarize:

Short-term gasoline price increases after the production shutdown do not generally predict higher gas prices in the event of a permanent closure. For the past eight years, approximately 80-85% of states without refineries had lower gasoline prices than Colorado. Currently, on average, states without refineries have cheaper gasoline than states with refineries.
Over the shutdown period spanning approximately three months, the refinery emitted pollutants at rates far exceeding permitted levels for over 900 cumulative hours. Of these 900 hours: 100 hours of emission were more than 30 times permit limits; 300 hours were more than 15 times permit limits; many more hours were several times higher than permit limits.
The permit exceedances occurring for the first four weeks after the malfunction were exempt from penalties under the existing regulations for emissions during periods of startup, shutdown and malfunction. Exempt exceedances included toxic releases of 32,000 pounds of hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide and 600 pounds of volatile organic compounds.
This extreme example of excess pollution is part of a long-term history of repeated violations. Suncor’s history of permit exceedances is the worst of all similar refineries studied by the EPA.
In the 3-year period of most recent available data in the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory (2021-2023), Suncor’s Commerce City Refinery was in “significant violation” of the Clean Air Act and “non compliance” with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act in every single quarter. It was also in “non compliance” with the Clean Water Act in the majority of quarters and in “significant violation” in 4 quarters.
Environmental justice concerns around Suncor are long-standing. Regulation of Suncor has been contentious, with EPA investigations, EPA objections to Suncor’s Title V permit, and lawsuits by both Suncor and environmental justice groups.

The report recommends that due to contentious issues around regulation, historical and ongoing serious pollution violations, and environmental justice concerns, the State should investigate removing the exemptions for penalties for pollution occurring during “start-up, shut-down and malfunction,” and should be prepared for a potential shutdown of the refinery.

See full report here.

Many thanks to Ryan DeCrescent for his hours of work tracking and analyzing data, creating graphs and co-authoring the report.