A Boulder-based conservation group is pushing for much stronger language in a draft rule by the state of Colorado requiring oil and gas companies to disclose chemicals used in the controversial drilling practice called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Counties across Colorado are gearing up for the next major oil and gas boom, scrambling to draft local regulations for everything from visual impacts to physical setbacks of drilling equipment. But state officials are increasingly flexing their regulatory muscles, and industry representatives fear more local regs will slow the next boom before it’s in full swing.
Whether it’s called hydraulic fracturing, hydro-fracking or just plain fracking, the controversial but common natural gas drilling process remains the focus of intense public scrutiny and public awareness events from Colorado to New York, including a couple of unique fracking functions set for this weekend.
Coming up with a definition of diesel fuel seems like a fairly straightforward task, but in the world of natural gas drilling and the process of hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – nothing ever comes easy. Senior Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette on Monday joined fellow Democrats Henry Waxman, Edward Markey and Rush Holt in asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to write a much broader definition of diesel fuel than the industry seems willing to accept.
Two years ago, former Colorado Sen. Tim Wirth delivered stern words to members of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association at their annual conference: You blew it. The natural gas industry could have been part of the climate bill called Waxman-Markey, he said, but in fact it was mentioned just twice in more than 900 pages of legislation.
Colorado’s top oil and gas regulator and the head of one of the state’s leading industry lobbying groups both say federal legislation compelling disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing would not have prevented the state’s worst cases of groundwater contamination.
Colorado’s coal industry is on fire lately, going after natural gas producers with gusto in the wake of last year’s controversial Clean Air, Clean Jobs Act, which requires Xcel Energy to convert several coal-fired power plants on Colorado’s Front Range over to natural gas or alternative fuel sources such as wind and solar.
A top Colorado oil and gas industry official today echoed the sentiments of Halliburton and a national lobbying group in reacting to a congressional investigation alleging the possible illegal use of diesel fuel in the controversial natural gas drilling process of hydraulic fracturing.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) today withdrew its lawsuit against the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission over the process that led to the state’s revised and still hotly debated oil and gas drilling regulations that went into effect in 2009.
A new poll released Thursday by the National Wildlife Federation (pdf) found that nearly two-thirds of Coloradans surveyed favor more oversight of the state’s oil and gas industry, as well as mandatory requirements for best technological practices to better protect public health and wildlife habitat.
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