DENVER— The Center for Biological Diversity and 350 Colorado asked a court today for permission to join the Environmental Protection Agency’s fight against a Polis administration lawsuit seeking to block public access to data detailing oil and gas industry air pollution.

The Colorado Air Pollution Control Division lawsuit is attempting to reverse an EPA decision prohibiting the state from continuing to hide from the public information revealing levels of harmful emissions from fossil fuel industries and other polluters.

The EPA found that the Colorado plan failed to meet Clean Air Act requirements for releasing the emissions data necessary for the public to enforce limits on harmful air pollution. The environmental groups want to join the lawsuit to help ensure the EPA’s decision is upheld.

“It’s time for the Polis administration to stop running Colorado state government like it’s a mini petro-dictatorship,” said Robert Ukeiley, an environmental health attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “If polluting companies don’t want the public to have access to their pollution numbers, they should switch to clean technologies like solar and wind power that don’t put out any pollution.”

“The path to clean air in Colorado is to justly move to a renewable energy economy,” said Micah Parker, executive director of 350 Colorado and the mother of two teenage daughters. “Hiding pollution numbers from the public is not the Colorado way.”

The Air Pollution Control Division’s lawsuit challenging the EPA’s order requiring the public disclosure of pollution numbers was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver.