A Rifle man currently serving as an environmental specialist for the state Energy and Carbon Management Commission has been named as one of the agency’s first two environmental justice liaisons.
Steven Arauza will join Yesica Chavez of Denver in the new roles. The two respectively will serve as dedicated resources for disproportionately impacted communities on the Western Slope and Front Range. According to a news release, they will attend and host community meetings, connect community members with additional resources and information about ECMC events and complaint processes, and monitor the quality of energy companies’ outreach efforts.
Arauza has a master’s degree in geological sciences and has more than 13 years of oil and gas regulatory experience, including more than nine years at the ECMC as an environmental specialist evaluating remediation efforts at oil and gas sites.
He is a vocal community advocate who ran unsuccessfully last year for Garfield County commissioner, volunteers with the Voces Unidas de las Montañas advocacy group based in Glenwood Springs, serves on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Environmental Justice Advisory Board, and is an elected officer for Colorado Workers for Innovative and New Solutions, or COWINS, the state employee union.
“I am especially interested in assessment and mitigation of cumulative impacts of climate change, stewardship of environmental resources, and protection and authentic engagement of disproportionately impacted communities,” Arauza said in the release.
He can be reached at steven.arauza@state.co.us or 720-498-5298.
Chavez has been an environmental justice advocate for more than a decade, most recently at the Keystone Policy Center and the ClimateWorks Foundation. She was a 2024 Environmental Justice Fellow at the Yale School of the Environment.
The ECMC recruited for the new positions based on direction from Senate Bill 24-229 and the commission’s adoption in 2024 of rules addressing in part cumulative impacts of oil and gas development. The rules require the commission and energy companies to provide more opportunities for communities to engage in energy regulations and permitting processes, according to ECMC’s release. A particular focus is placed on disproportionately impacted communities, which by state statute includes areas such as low-income communities, communities of color, those with environmental and socioeconomic impacts, and tribal lands.