Want a glimpse of one of 2009’s potentially biggest domestic production issues? Look no further than the new oil and gas regulations Colorado adopted Dec. 11.
The Colorado Oil & Gas Association thinks they’re awful. Earthworks, formed to oppose mining practices but expanded its efforts into oil and gas in 1999, thinks they’re terrific.
The state’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission unanimously approved changes it said would provide greater protection for Colorado’s water, wildlife, and communities. The regulations also apply to private and federal land because they are “grounded in the police powers of the state” to protect the public’s safety and welfare, COGCC said.
The commission developed the new rules after Colorado’s general assembly adopted House Bills 1341 and 1298 in its 2007 session. COGCC said the process involved public meetings statewide, thousands of comments and testimony, 23 days of hearings and deliberation before final vote. The legislature will review the rules in its 2009 session.
Primary provisions
Key provisions include establishing protection zones around streams that serve public drinking water supplies, requiring producers to keep track of and disclose drilling chemicals they use to state and emergency responders, managing erosion and reducing water pollution around production sites during storms and snow run-off periods, and reducing odors from development near homes and schools.
COGCC said producers also will be required to let the state’s health department and wildlife agency consult and offer recommendations, notify nearby landowners and seek public comments on proposed projects. Operators also will have the ability to submit large-scale development plans to expedite or eliminate some permit reviews, the commission said.
“The rules grandfather most existing operations and will be phased in over several months to provide for a smooth implementation,” it indicated. COGCC also has received approval to hire new employees and is planning training sessions with producers, it added.
Burdensome
But John Swartout, COGA senior vice-president for policy and government affairs, said Dec. 11 that COGCC’s new regulations “create the most expensive, time-consuming and burdensome regulatory environment in the nation, all at a time when Colorado should be fighting to keep jobs.” The rules also don’t achieve the legislative intent to create a “timely and efficient” drilling permit application process because they add “numerous and burdensome layers…to the already cumbersome process.”
Earthworks took the opposite view. “A commission that had been oil and gas industry-dominated for decades now has a balance of representation from the industry, local government, public health, agriculture, and wildlife sectors, with a mandate to protect public health and the environment in the course of oil and gas development,” it said on Dec. 12.
Colorado’s new rules take effect May 1 on public land within the state and Apr. 1 on all other acreage.
