It’s called the Employee Trip Reduction Plan and it’s aimed at addressing the number one cause of pollution in Colorado — transportation. The rule would impact every business with more than 100 employees in the nine ozone non-attainment counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, Jefferson and parts of Larimer and Weld.
The rule also requires businesses to hire a transportation coordinator by January of next year to track how every employee is getting to work, come up with an employee trip reduction plan and submit a progress report each year to the state. First responders, truckers and people who drive electric vehicles are exempt.
“It’s the absolute definition of bureaucratic absurdity,” says Kelly Sloan with the Freedom to Drive Coalition.
He says the rule is unrealistic, “Whether its retailers, whether its manufacturers, hospitals, airports, you name it, they’re trying to put restrictions on people getting to jobs that don’t have those options.”