Concerned residents and activists said Friday that the state’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry, as well as the quality of life for residents along the Western Slope, are largely dependent on legislation that would create tighter rules for oil and gas companies operating in Colorado.
Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry argued that tighter regulations — which include increasing the requirement permitting process to an estimated minimum of 45 days — would scare away businesses and jobs from Colorado both now and when the state gets out of the recession.
The Joint Service Legal Committee listened on Friday to a set of new protections that supporters say will “allow a healthy oil and gas industry to thrive, while protecting the state’s world-class natural resources, public health, wildlife habitat and its $10 billion a year outdoor recreation industry.” The bipartisan committee voted 7-2 to approve almost every rule suggested by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and the bill now goes to the full Colorado House.
Highlights
Supporters say that highlights of the new proposed protections include:
• Establishing protection zones around streams that serve public drinking water supplies;
• Reduce odors where oil and gas development is occurring near homes and schools in northwestern Colorado;
• Managing erosion and reduce water pollution around oil and gas operators during storms and snow run-off seasons;
• Allowing the state health department and state wildlife agency to consult and offer recommendations on oil and gas development to protect public health, the environment and wildlife;
• Providing notice to nearby landowners and public comment periods for development proposals.
Colorado Oil and Gas Industry spokesman Nate Strauch said the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission — the group appointed by the legislature to recommend new regulations on the oil and gas industry — overstepped its — statutory authority in a number of significant ways. According to Strauch, the commission overstepped its order to suggest a “timely and efficient rulemaking process for the permitting of oil and gas drilling” by making the process neither timely nor efficient.
For an oil and gas company to get a permit for drilling under the proposed regulations, Strauch said the company must get consent with the Department of Wildlife, Colorado Department of Public Health and adjacent and surface land owners of where the drilling would take place.
Longest permitting process?
According to the spokesman, the oil and gas industry estimates the permitting process would take a minimum of 45 days, which he said would be the longest permitting process anywhere in the United States.
“How willing is the industry, which employs 70,000 Coloradans, going to be to come to Colorado when they can go to a number of other states and not have to deal with nearly as much red tape?” he said.
The Colorado oil and gas industry is an integral part of the state’s economic livelihood, but shouldn’t come at the expense of another major contributing factor to state’s economy — tourism — argued Rachel Richards, Pitkin County Commissioner and the Vice-Chair of the Northwest Council of Governments.
“Tourism is an infinite resource as long as we don’t damage the goods that people come to see,” she said. “As important as the oil and gas industry is … it’s a boom and bust industry. We’ve been through enough booms and busts to know that it’s important to protect the resource that so many others depend on for their livelihood and quality of life for the long term.”
No harm to tourism?
Strauch blasted the tourism argument, saying that the oil and gas industry has already existed for years in Colorado and hasn’t bitten much into the state’s tourism dollars. He argued that the two industries could work hand in hand, but that the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is recommending too many stringent regulations for tourism and natural resource development to coexist.
“They paint a picture, because it’s convenient for them, to make it seem like a zero sum game; we can either have tourism or we can have the development of our natural resources,” he said. “That’s simply not the case, it’s not one or the other. We can do both.”
