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State regulators on verge of passing new cumulative-impact requirements on oil-and-gas projects
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State, The Sum & Substance

State regulators on verge of passing new cumulative-impact requirements on oil-and-gas projects

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado regulators are debating an “enormous” set of regulations that will require consideration of the cumulative impacts of any new or expanded oil-and-gas project on air, water and other natural resources before state officials can grant operating permits. The rules are the product of several laws passed since 2019 aiming to protect communities already dealing with significant emissions by requiring the state to consider permits in the context of existing pollution rather than focus only on the impacts of the new projects. The most recent bill on the subject, approved this year, gave the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission a specific definition of “cumulative impacts” around which it must build the new regulations. How...
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Colorado’s oil & gas industry faces more regulation with emissions-cutting rules
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State, The Sum & Substance

Colorado’s oil & gas industry faces more regulation with emissions-cutting rules

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado officials are advancing rules to cut carbon emissions in yet another sector — this time in the midstream sector of the oil and gas industry, a battleground area in which both industry and environmental leaders worry already about the proposed regulations. The midstream sector is comprised of the pipelines and facilities that transport natural gas from wells to the transmission companies that distribute it to power plants and homes. A key part of the sector — which is made up in Colorado of three major players and a couple dozen smaller companies — is the compression plants that keep the gas moving down long pipelines to its destinations. As part of efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030, state officials have put rules i...
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Despite uptick in production, Colorado oil industry still faces uncertainty, is wary of regulations
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denvergazette.com, State

Despite uptick in production, Colorado oil industry still faces uncertainty, is wary of regulations

By Scott Weiser | Denver Gazette Though oil production in Colorado has inched up this year, the state has still not recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic — and the industry is blaming regulations as the culprit.   Colorado oil producers said changing regulations has whipsawed the industry and they are struggling to cope with uncertainty that is slowing the recovery from the days of the COVID-19 shutdowns.  “We have undergone a massive amount of regulatory changes in rule makings since the governor signed Senate Bill 181 into law in 2019,” Dan Haley, president and CEO of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association told The Denver Gazette. “We have about 10 new rule makings on the books for this year alone across three different agencies. All businesses need certainty. W...
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Anti-oil activists try to break into Magna Carta display as part of climate protest
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National, Straight Arrow News

Anti-oil activists try to break into Magna Carta display as part of climate protest

By Jack Aylmer , Evan Hummel , Jake Maslo  | Straight Arrow News Two climate activists reportedly tried to break the glass case containing the Magna Carta, which is believed to be the founding documents for Western democracy. At the British Library on Friday, May 10, the women used a hammer and chisel to pound at the glass. However, the pair caused only minor damage to the case and the historic document was untouched. The women pounded the glass in the name of fighting climate change. They belong to the group called Just Stop Oil — a group looking to end the world’s reliance on fossil fuels. The women, Rev. Sue Parfitt and Judy Bruce, a retired biology teacher, released a statement in response to the incident. “The Magna Carta is rightly revered, being of great...
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Colorado lawmakers OK bills on AI, oil and gas, medical malpractice
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coloradopolitics.com, State

Colorado lawmakers OK bills on AI, oil and gas, medical malpractice

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics With the end of the legislative session looming closer, members of Colorado's state House worked on Sunday to debate bills, hold a committee hearing and advanced several measures.   With a vote of 37-24, the House passed House Bill 1468, which aims to broaden the scope of the state's facial recognition software task force to include the study of additional facets of artificial intelligence and biometric technology. Lawmakers also adopted an amendment to allow the task force to study the effects of artificial intelligence and biometric technology on "vulnerable communities," addressing points raised by parties and Judiciary Committee members regarding what they described as potential biases against people of color in faci...
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Daniel: Unleash responsible energy production in Colorado, kill Senate Bill 24-159
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Commentary, Western Slope

Daniel: Unleash responsible energy production in Colorado, kill Senate Bill 24-159

By BOBBIE DANIEL | Guest Columnist Recently, our Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution declaring Mesa County’s opposition to Senate Bill 24-159, which prohibits new oil and gas production in Colorado. At first glance, the Front Range sponsors of this bill aim to give us less pollution, better health outcomes, reasonable care of finite mineral resources and more responsible property rights. We all want these things, and while the aspiration for reduced pollution and enhanced health and environmental stewardship is universal, the approach of SB 24-159 is concerning. It is a widely-known achievement of the 19th century that the greatest standard of living has been achieved by respecting private property rights of the individual, versus the road of collective...
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Colorado lawmakers reject proposed ban on new oil and gas drilling after 2030
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State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado lawmakers reject proposed ban on new oil and gas drilling after 2030

By Mark Jaffe | Colorado Sun A bill to ban new oil and gas drilling in Colorado after 2030 — which sparked a spate of industry TV ads with dire warnings — was rejected Thursday by a bipartisan majority of the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee after a marathon hearing. The legislation, Senate Bill 159 — sponsored by two Democratic senators, Kevin Priola, of Henderson, and Sonya Jaquez Lewis, of Boulder County —  would have required state oil and gas regulators to stop issuing new drilling permits starting in 2030, with those permits to be used by 2032. Faced with projections of potentially severe impacts of climate change and the Front Range’s continuing struggles to curb ozone pollution, the bill was a necessary step to transition to cleaner energy,...
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List of orphan oil and gas wells swells to more than 1,000 in Colorado as small operators abandon the state
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State, The Colorado Sun

List of orphan oil and gas wells swells to more than 1,000 in Colorado as small operators abandon the state

By Mark Jaffe | The Colorado Sun The number of orphan wells in Colorado has topped 1,000 — a four-fold increase in four years — as the state takes over 358 wells from two defunct oil and gas companies this spring. The Energy and Carbon Management Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry and operates the state’s orphan well program, is adding the 339 wells of Dallas-based Omimex Petroleum and 19 wells from Centennial-based Chemco Exploration. The ECMC is also seizing $205,000 in bonds from Omimex — about $604 per well — and $60,000 in bonds from Chemco, equal to $3,158 for each well. The commission estimates that on average it takes $10,000 to $40,000 to plug and abandon a well and $100,000 for site remediation. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN...
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Colorado environmental groups file three ballot measures to limit oil and gas industry 
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State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado environmental groups file three ballot measures to limit oil and gas industry 

By Michael Booth | Colorado Sun The truce is off. Let the negotiations begin again. Leading Colorado environmental groups filed language Thursday for three sweeping ballot measures aimed at limiting the oil and gas industry in the state, openly declaring them a blocking effort to as many as a half-dozen equally sweeping proposals supported by oil interests.  The potential ballot battle, alongside a number of anti-oil and gas bills still under debate in the legislature this year, is a renewal of the election year games of chicken from 2018, 2020 and 2022. In some past elections, environmental groups and oil and gas representatives agreed to take competing measures off the table so long as it was a bilateral disarmament. READ THE FULL STORY IN THE COLORADO SUN
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Study: Colorado ban on oil and gas drilling will take a toll on education, destroy jobs, cut GDP
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Colorado Springs Gazette, State

Study: Colorado ban on oil and gas drilling will take a toll on education, destroy jobs, cut GDP

By Scott Weiser | Colorado Springs Gazette A bill introduced in the state senate to end oil and gas drilling poses a catastrophic threat to Colorado’s economy, according to researchers from the Common Sense Institute. Senate Bill 24-159 would require the state to cease issuing new oil and gas drilling permits by 2030. The bill was set to be heard on Thursday by the Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee but was postponed because of a snowstorm. A hearing has not yet been rescheduled. “It's horrible on every front because it claims to be about CO2 emission reduction, which it's not,” said CSI Energy Fellow Trisha Curtis. “It's beyond detrimental and devastating to the economic state of Colorado and it really doesn't appreciate the economic realities at all." READ THE FULL...
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