Activists, community members see new law as their seat at negotiating table when it comes to where and how much drilling is allowed
When sponsors of a bill revamping Colorado’s oil and gas laws said the state’s regulations hadn’t changed much in decades, industry representatives were taken aback.
In a statement reminiscent of previous debates, Dan Haley, president and CEO of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said the state’s regulations are some of the strictest in the country and have been updated “dozens and dozens of times with bipartisan support.”
As state regulators write new oil and gas rules and update others to implement what one person called an “earthquake” of a law, Colorado’s regulations, and just how strong they are or should be, will get a hard look.
“Are there states like New York that ban fracking? Yeah, so that’s a stricter set of rules.Those are tougher than ours because they don’t allow for oil and gas development,” Haley said in a recent interview. “But of the major oil- and gas-producing states, I would argue that our rules across the board are more comprehensive than others.”
Some supporters of the legislation, Senate Bill 19-181, signed into law in April, disagree. Rules still on the books were written under the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s former mandate to “foster the responsible development of Colorado’s oil and gas natural resources.”
The bill, signed into law in April, changed the mission of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from fostering to regulating development “in a manner that protects public health, safety, welfare, the environment and wildlife resources.” The COGCC is writing rules to comply with the new mandate, a process expected to take several months.
In the past, industry had a seat at the table but homeowners and others didn’t, contended Susan Noble, a Commerce City resident and a founder of the community group North Range Concerned Citizens.
“So any regulations crafted prior to this were regulations that were approved by oil and gas industry,” Noble said. “SB 181 upended that. Now we have a place at the table.”
For Bruce Baizel, energy program director with the environmental group Earthworks, the issue of enforcement is as important as how tough the regulations are. He said Colorado regulators have tended toward a don’t-rock-the-boat attitude.
But Colorado’s new law could be “an earthquake,” depending on how rules are written and enforced, because it directs companies to ensure their projects will be protective of human health and the environment.