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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Original ReportingThis article contains firsthand information gathered by reporters. This includes directly interviewing sources and analyzing primary source documents. ReferencesThis article includes a list of source material, including documents and people, so you can follow the story further. Cemex’s Cement Plant on June 13, 2022, near Lyons. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun) The Boulder County Commissioners Thursday voted against a deal that would have extended a mining permit for Cemex near Lyons in exchange for closing a high-emissions cement plant in 15 years and 1,000 acres of open space, after a groundswell of public opposition doomed the staff-negotiated agreement. The commissioners voted 2 to 1 against the deal.Cemex officials at the last minute offered to end cement making at the Lyons plant 12 years from now instead of the 15 years agreed to in the initial proposal with Boulder County staff. The company also said it would commit to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 5% a year starting now, rather than in 2025 when new state laws for heavy industry will require audits and emissions cuts. Cemex said it would make the 5% cuts by purchasing carbon offsets amounting to 17,000 tons of its annual emissions, beginning Jan. 1. The new concessions, combined with previous commitments to work with regulators on dust control and best available greenhouse gas technology, “strike the right balance” for an agreement, Cemex Vice President Trpimir Renic told the commissioners before their vote. The county commissioners’ final action came after the Boulder County Planning Commission recommended against a complex agreement worked out between Cemex and Boulder County Parks and Open Space. The Cemex permit for mining cement-making materials expires this fall; the cement-making plant on the south side of the highway, attached by a conveyor belt to the Dowe Flats quarry north of Colorado 66, can operate indefinitely under state air pollution permitting. The plant, one of the larger polluters in the state, pumps out more than 350,000 tons of carbon dioxide in an average year. If the county issued a 15-year mining permit, Cemex agreed to shutter the cement plant in 2037. Cemex also offered
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