Despite a record fine of $390,000 levied last month against Oxy USA, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) has a backlog of unresolved water and soil contamination cases resulting from natural gas drilling in northwest Colorado, a Colorado Independent investigation reveals.
Even as one oil and gas company, Antero, railed against community activists with the audacity to push for responsible drilling practices in and around communities, rivers and streams, two other companies self-reported possible water well contaminations related to drilling.
The…
The Garfield County commissioners continue to take potshots at the state over perceived lapses in oil and gas drilling enforcement for water contamination, deciding Monday to demand more answers in the now-infamous West Divide Creek benzene and methane leak of…
Louis Meeks says he witnessed shoddy hydraulic fracturing practices on his ranch near Pavillion, Wyo., by an oil and gas company fined for the same thing in Colorado, and wants the federal government to regulate the process because states seem incapable of proper oversight.
This November, Coloradans will be faced with two ballot initiatives dealing with how the state collects and allocates taxes on the oil and gas industry. Severance tax, so-named because it applies to natural resources permanently severed from the earth, not only dominates part of the the state’s ballot, but also much of the political discourse this election season. Some fear that increasing taxes on the industry — as Governor Bill Ritter’s Amendment 58 will do — will only scare off oil and gas companies or raise gas prices in Colorado.
Oil and gas companies doing business in Colorado have dropped a mind-blowing $10 million into Amendment 58 — a statewide initiative that would cut their state severance tax and raise roughly $321 million a year for college scholarships, wildlife habitat and other programs. But when it comes to whether big oil may be pumping in cash to help Republicans retake control of the state Senate, well, they’re just not saying. And in fact, they don’t have to.
The oil and gas industry hates change, especially if it’s going to cost them money and time. With Colorado’s severance tax rate on natural gas production one of the lowest in the West and Third World protection on the environment…
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