Our programs

Our Programs

Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action has five programs of advocacy:

Subduing Smog

Smog, also called ozone, is the most widespread threat to communities and children in the Rocky Mountain region. It plagues urban communities in Denver, Colorado, Salt Lake City, Utah, and others, as well as rural communities facing increasing oil and gas drilling. Smog is linked to asthma, reduced birthweights, wheezing among infants and children, and senior emergency room visits. It is the most pervasive threat to the health of future generations in the Rockies.

Using the best available science and health information, policy development, legal advocacy, and community organizing, our efforts aim to secure smog reductions and the safeguards needed to prevent smog from threatening people's health. Smog is both controllable and preventable; people should not have to suffer from this pollution.

Taking on Air Toxics

Benzene? Dioxins? Formaldehyde? Mercury? Yes, these toxic compounds are all released from smokestacks and tailpipes into the air we breathe, poisoning us, our children, our water, and our future. These four toxic air pollutants are the most prevalent in the Rocky Mountain region. All four are linked to cancer, other illnesses, developmental disabilities among infants and children, and premature death.

Our efforts aim to achieve significant reductions in toxic air pollution, particularly of benzene, dioxins, formaldehyde, and mercury. Our primary focus is on holding government and industry accountable. There is no excuse for toxic air pollution. It must be reduced and eliminated, and our children given the healthy future they deserve.

Wild Skies Initiative

The Rocky Mountain region is blessed with pristine wildlands, expansive views, beautifully scenic vistas, and cool, clean headwaters. Unfortunately, rising air pollution is increasingly degrading pristine areas throughout the western United States. Hazy skies, acid rain, nitrogen deposition, and mercury contamination are becoming all-too-common.

Our Wild Skies Initiative aims to eliminate the threat of rising air pollution to pristine areas in the Rocky Mountain region. Pristine areas are barometers for the health of the environment that sustain us. Addressing the threat of air pollution to western wildlands addresses the threat of air pollution to our region as a whole.

Community and Family Empowerment

Communities and families throughout the Rocky Mountain region working to hold cement factories, uranium mills, coal-burning power plants, and other major sources of air pollution accountable to clean air in their own neighborhoods and towns. With great dedication and persistence, these individuals and groups are bringing about much-needed and lasting change at a local level.

Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action works in partnership to empower communities and families throughout the Rocky Mountain region. We provide a resource of knowledge, experience, and strategy to local groups and individuals to build on success, to provide a springboard for intensified advocacy, and to strengthen our regional network of health advocates, particularly among communities and families disproportionately affected by air pollution.

Clean Energy

Fossil fuel energy development is linked to many of the Rocky Mountain region's most pressing air pollution problems. Increased oil and natural gas production and refining, renewed interest in coal-fired power generation, and ongoing coal burning at outdated power plants are all leading to hazy skies, foul air, and degrading community health and prosperity.

Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action's Clean Energy program promotes a three-pronged solution to energy-related air pollution: 1) Increased energy conservation; 2) Focus on renewables; and 3) Responsible development of fossil fuels while we transition away from our dependence on oil, natural gas, and coal. We seek to provide alternative clean energy solutions as incentives to avoid continued fossil fuel development.

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