A portion of excess funds from a recent Colorado state revenue forecast should be spent to study the impact of oil and gas exploration and development on air quality, according to the Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB). In an amended spending request to the state’s Joint Budget Committee, the OSPB asked that $492,776 go to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to conduct the survey, and another $567,000 from the state’s capital construction budget be used to purchase equipment for the survey. Gov. John Hickenlooper also recommended $1.3 million in cash fund spending authority for CDPHE to enter into a collaborative partnership with Colorado State University to begin collecting data for a broader study of the impacts of oil and gas operations on air quality in the state’s northern Front Range (see Shale Daily, Jan. 14).