Drivers Give Denver a Breather--Park Cars in Air Cleanup

DENVER —  The city with the nation’s worst carbon monoxide problem kicked off its fourth annual Better Air Campaign on Monday, with Colorado Gov. Roy Romer and thousands of other people abandoning their cars and taking buses to work.

The campaign, which runs through Jan. 29, asks motorists to leave their cars at home one day a week and to refrain from burning wood in fireplaces and stoves on high pollution days to help reduce carbon monoxide levels in the metropolitan area.

Motorists also will be required to use cleaner-burning oxygenated fuels for two months in nine counties along the Front Range of Colorado beginning Jan. 1.

Carbon monoxide levels in metropolitan Denver were the highest in the nation last year, the Environmental Protection Agency reported.

“All of us have got to take a piece of the sacrifice to clean the air in Denver,” Romer said. “None of us are exempt. We all have to do something to help.”