Hickenlooper denies flip-flopping on oil and gas drilling regulations

DENVER – Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper Wednesday responded to accusations of flip-flopping on oil and gas regulations first made at a tea party rally in Estes Park Tuesday by potential Republican opponent Scott McInnis. Hickenlooper said that while he has said some of the rules enacted in the spring of 2009 went too far, he has never said he planned to change those rules.

Politics remain charged around year-old state drilling regulations

Predictions of economic doom that surrounded the environmentally tougher oil and gas drilling regulations put in place in Colorado more than a year ago would seem to have lost power. The political rhetoric has cooled somewhat, other states are now weighing implementing their own Colorado-style regs, and drilling activity is slowly picking up again on the Western Slope.

Penry joins clean-energy effort, touts increase in gas industry jobs

State Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, the former quarterback and golden boy of the state GOP, has his name splashed all over a piece of clean-energy legislation that has the backing of his political nemesis, Gov. Bill Ritter, and a slew of conservation groups, including Environment Colorado, Colorado Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club.

Sage grouse ruling ruffles feathers of Colorado oil and gas industry

Colorado oil and gas industry officials Monday were nervously eyeing Friday’s decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designating the greater sage grouse as “warranted but precluded” for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Conservationists, meanwhile, reacted Friday with…

Colorado, New Mexico oil and gas lobby groups tread rocky political road

New Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) President Tisha Conoly Schuller need look no farther away than New Mexico for an example of what can happen to the head of a state’s powerful industry lobby if they stray too far…

New COGA chief comes with enviro permitting background in drilling

Regime change is in the wind for the Colorado oil and gas trade association, which apparently has been conflicted for a while now. The association is challenging environmentally stricter drilling regulations while simultaneously touting those regs as adequate to…

GarCo commissioners vote 2-1 to oppose DeGette’s FRAC Act

A grass-roots citizen’s group troubled by air and water pollution from natural gas drilling in Garfield County expressed “extreme disappointment” Monday when the county commissioners voted 2-1 to oppose more federal oversight of the industry.

Did COGA’s Kathy Hall call it quits over ‘fracking fluid in my mouth’ comment?

Kathy Hall, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association Western Slope representative infamously caught on film saying natural-gas drilling chemicals are so benign she’s had them in her mouth, resigned from COGA last week, according to the Denver Post.

In today’s…

COGA prez resignation has green groups nervous

The resignation of Meg Collins as president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) has touched off speculation in conservation circles that the state’s leading trade group for the oil and gas industry was dissatisfied with the worsening…

Former Sen. Wirth, natural gas advocate, takes industry to task

They were tough words for the natural gas industry to hear. In a blunt speech before the Colorado Oil and Gas Association last week, Timothy Wirth, a former Colorado Democratic senator and Under Secretary of State for global affairs in the Clinton administration, warned industry leaders that they need to pay attention to the environmental and climate concerns that are shaping national policy, or risk being left behind.