Opinion: Does Suncor — an urban pollutor — need hospice or rehab?

[ad_1]

Gas flare into sky at Suncor Refinery in Commerce City, Colorado on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)

Suncor Energy has a long history of polluting the community and violating the laws and regulations designed to protect people who work at the facility and who live nearby. This dark history includes innumerable malfunctions, accidents, and discharges of chemicals into the air and water.

In the past, local leaders ignored, protected, or covered for Suncor because of the economic and political power wielded by Colorado’s only oil refinery. Now, local leaders are fed up. Some point out the endless cycle of “problem, apology, and repeat.” Even the Commerce City mayor said the community’s relationship with Suncor is like a domestic violence situation, where one spouse continues to abuse the other, even after multiple promises to do better.

As Suncor continues to cough pollution into our air and secrete chemicals into our water, it is fair and justified (perhaps absolutely necessary) to reassess our relationship with Colorado’s only oil refinery which is located in the middle of the metropolitan area.

Is it time to place the aging and ailing Suncor refinery on hospice where efforts can focus on making its demise as painless and smooth as possible? Or should communities continue to desperately hold on to the possibility that Suncor can be rehabilitated to become a good neighbor, employer, and business?

Hospice

Hospice is a holistic process for incurable entities of short anticipated life expectancy.  The goal of hospice is to focus on managing symptoms to minimize pain and maximize quality of life as the entity passes on.

Placing Suncor on hospice would require a variety of stakeholders to collaborate for a smooth transition for employees, businesses, and communities to adapt to a life without Suncor in the Denver metro area. The demise of the refinery would be no small task. It would require significant investments in labor, technology, and other assets to remediate decades of pollution, neglect, and mismanagement. In addition, a successful hospice plan must include managing pain associated with finding alternative sources of asphalt and jet fuel.

There is no question that Suncor’s departure would be a herculean effort, but Colorado communities have a track record of overcoming extremely difficult environmental challenges.  Remediation of the Suncor facility for other cleaner and compatible uses could be among the most impactful environmental achievements of this next century, rising to the level of historic significance as Rocky Flats and the Rocky Mountain Arsenal.

In determining whether hospice is the correct course of action, we need to ask ourselves whether our collective dependence on a centralized, local source of asphalt and jet fuel (and addiction to cheap gas) is worth the impact Suncor has on the climate, local communities, and public health?  If we cannot live without Suncor, then we need to consider the next alternative.

Rehab

Rehabilitation is a set of interventions designed to optimize functionality and reduce disability, ailment, or dysfunction. In the medical context, rehabilitation often includes painful exercises to stretch and strengthen functions of movement and mobility. In the context of domestic violence, rehabilitation can require the abuser to take responsibility for unacceptable behavior and reflect on how the abuser can prevent repeating such unacceptable behavior.

[ad_2]

Source link