I seem to remember that CO has granted status to people within 500 miles of the stated requirement. But this always occurs after the fact (that is, sometime after the first of the year) and is not a published benefit of the program, so you can't really rely on it, and if it doesn't happen, it's already too late to do anything about it when you find out. I would be very surprised to hear that someone that was only 18 miles short didn't get the status automatically, but if it were me in that situation, I'd make sure that I qualified by booking whatever my next short trip was now and buying the EQM's through the online offer.