Colorado Democrats have introduced a bill in the State Legislature that would require hydraulically fractured oil and gas wells to be set back at least 1,000 feet from any school or residence.
State Representative Matt Jones on Thursday linked the highly controversial oil and gas drilling process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to the recent federal government crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries within 1,000 feet of schools in Colorado.
There was widespread praise Tuesday for a hard-fought compromise deal that led to Colorado’s groundbreaking new hydraulic fracturing chemical disclosure rule, but environmental groups and some politicians have already started pushing for more regulation of the state’s booming oil and gas industry.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) today unanimously approved a new rule requiring oil and gas companies to fully disclose the chemicals used in the controversial but commonplace drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Colorado’s conservation community wants to make sure oil and gas regulators get it right the first time Monday when they decide on a new hydraulic fracturing chemical disclosure rule. Otherwise, they say state officials should keep working on the new rule.
Even as state oil and gas regulators mull over new rules for the disclosure of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, the Colorado Supreme Court is pondering whether citizen activist groups can intervene on matters like the ultimate frack job in 1969 using a 43-kiloton nuclear bomb.
Colorado oil and gas regulators Monday defended what critics claim are watered-down hydraulic fracturing chemical disclosure rules, arguing the new regulations can be fine-tuned later to add more public health and environmental protections if necessary.
Critics of a draft Colorado rule to compel oil and gas companies to divulge chemicals used in the controversial hydraulic fracturing process will have some extra time to file comments online after the state’s website was taken down for “security-related emergency maintenance.”
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.
For decades, Royal Dutch Shell – Europe’s largest energy company – has been known in Colorado as the king of oil shale research, spending an estimated $200 million on an experimental and controversial extraction process that has yet to be proven commercially viable. But Shell and its American subsidiaries have increasingly been moving into natural gas drilling in the United States, including a well permit pulled in southern Colorado that has touched off a firestorm of debate over state versus local control of drilling operations and just how much public input should be allowed.
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