As the Environmental Protection Administration finalizes its air standards for hydraulic fracturing, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette sent a letter today asking it to consider a new study that shows Colorado residents living near natural gas wells are exposed to increased levels of carcinogens and toxins.
Anti-gas-drilling activists in Colorado are pointing to a 1984 case in West Virginia as the smoking gun proving the industry and government agencies that regulate it have been lying all along about hydraulic fracturing contaminating groundwater supplies.
Western Slope oil and gas watchdog groups this week questioned whether the new board members appointed to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) last week by Gov. John Hickenlooper will lean too heavily toward industry and Front Range concerns.
Denver-based Antero Resources, the company revealed to be disposing of oil and gas drilling waste to Eagle County in a Colorado Independent exclusive earlier this month, is now being hit with more legal action stemming from its natural gas drilling activities in neighboring Garfield County.
Community activists battling to mitigate the potential environmental impacts of a proposed 200-well natural gas drilling project in Battlement Mesa reacted sharply Tuesday to the news that Garfield County has dropped an ongoing Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to weigh those risks.
Colorado oil and gas regulators are touting a new website, set to debut in mid-April, that will allow operators to voluntarily register chemicals used in the controversial but commonly used process of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), under revised oil and gas drilling regulations that went into effect in 2009, already requires operators to disclose fracturing chemicals if requested by state regulators or by health professionals.
A New York City law firm today will hold a press conference on the West Steps of the Colorado State Capitol building in Denver to announce a lawsuit against a Denver-based natural gas drilling company for the alleged contamination of a Silt family’s property “leading to their forced exile from their home and serious health effects.”
Even as U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, continued his crusade last week to step up federal oversight of the natural gas drilling industry, his fellow Western Slope congressman, Republican Scott Tipton of Cortez, proposed a new regulatory impact study (RIS) to tabulate the fiscal impacts of federal regulations on industry.
As The New York Times continues to expose infighting in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over its regulation – or the lack thereof – of the nation’s booming natural gas industry, county officials in Colorado are grappling with health impact assessments (HIA) of their own. Garfield County this week released a second draft of an HIA conducted by the Colorado School of Public Health (CSPH) and first released last fall. It looks at the potential health impacts of a proposal by Denver-based Antero Resources to drill up to 200 new natural gas wells in the Battlement Mesa community.
Wednesday’s move by the Bureau of Land Management to proceed with more oil shale leases for Exxon Mobil and two other companies conjured up memories for some of the “Black Sunday” bust of May 2, 1982, when Exxon laid off 2,200 oil shale workers on Colorado’s Western Slope. But this time will be different, an Exxon spokesman told the Colorado Independent Thursday.
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