CBS Colorado has the latest entry in Colorado’s long-running game of “make everything cost more, then act surprised when families notice.” In the April 13, 2026 report, CBS says a new rule from the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission will require landfills to control methane emissions from decomposing waste, a move counties warn could cost millions and push trash fees higher. The story notes Colorado landfills emit at least 1.3 million tons of methane a year, making them the state’s third-largest methane source, and says methane is far more potent than carbon dioxide even though it makes up a much smaller share of total greenhouse gases.
The piece centers on county concerns over cost. Morgan County Commissioner Tim Malone says a gas collection and control system would cost roughly $4 million to $6 million up front, with at least another $1 million a year for monitoring, reporting, and maintenance. State Senators Byron Pelton and Dylan Roberts have introduced a bill to help counties tap grant funding, but the article says an earlier exemption for counties that could not afford compliance was stripped out after environmental groups pushed back. The rule applies to landfills with at least 450,000 tons of trash, about 15 to 16 facilities for now, and counties will have three years to submit methane-capture plans plus another year and a half to implement them.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission passed a rule requiring certain landfills to capture methane emissions. Sounds simple enough, until you get to the part where county governments are the ones staring at the bill.
- Morgan County’s Tim Malone says compliance could mean $4 million to $6 million just to install a gas collection and control system, plus at least $1 million a year after that. That is quite a price tag for the privilege of being lectured about moral urgency.
- Lawmakers are now trying to soften the blow with grant money, which is government’s favorite magic trick: create an expensive mandate, then act heroic for maybe helping cover part of the cost with someone else’s tax dollars.
- The article says an exemption for counties that could not afford the requirement was removed after pushback from environmental groups. There it is. The people demanding purity rarely seem eager to explain the invoice to the folks paying it.
- County officials warn higher dump fees could become an affordability problem and may even lead to more illegal dumping. Because in the real world, when government makes basic services more expensive, people do not clap. They look for cheaper ways around the system.
My Bottom Line
And we wonder why Colorado keeps getting more expensive.
Nobody sane is against clean air. That is not the debate. The debate is whether this state can go five minutes without passing another feel-good mandate that lands like a cinder block on local governments and working families. According to the article, counties are looking at millions in new capital costs and at least seven figures a year after that. Those costs do not disappear because a regulator used the word sustainability in a meeting.
This is the pattern. The environmental left demands action. The legislature and commissions deliver a shiny new rule. Then county commissioners, ratepayers, and ordinary residents get handed the tab. Trash fees go up. Illegal dumping risk goes up. Local budgets get tighter. And the people who pushed it hardest still get to strut around like they saved civilization with your wallet.
The most irritating part is the performance of it all. Colorado Democrats and their activist orbit love this stuff because it signals virtue to the right audience. It tells the base they are serious, bold, and deeply committed to the cause. Meanwhile, normie Coloradans are just trying to pay their mortgage, buy groceries, fill the tank, and now apparently subsidize ever more expensive garbage disposal so somebody at the Capitol can feel morally elevated.
This is how states get harder to afford one rule at a time. Not with one dramatic collapse, but with a thousand elegant little mandates, each sold as necessary, each defended as compassionate, and each quietly making normal life more expensive than it needs to be.
Source: CBS Colorado
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