State supreme court deals blow to county gas drilling impact fees

Impact fees assessed against equipment used by oil and gas companies in Rio Blanco County – most notably ExxonMobil – took a big hit this week when the Colorado Supreme Court Monday rejected a county request to rehear the case.…

ExxonMobil’s natural-gas plunge makes sense globally and in Colorado

Analysts are calling ExxonMobil’s $31 billion acquisition of natural-gas giant XTO Energy a much safer bet than a similar leap made by energy conglomerate ConocoPhillips into natural-gas production when it purchased Burlington Resources for $36 billion in 2005.

Despite heat, pioneering Rio Blanco County stands by energy impact fees

Oil and gas companies fought the fees at every turn, in part leery of the precedent it might set not only for other gas-rich counties in Colorado, but also around the nation. The possibility of impact fees quickly became a campaign issue in neighboring Garfield County during the 2008 county commissioner election.

Battlement Mesa residents leery of plan to drill for gas right in town

It’s a valid question: If you retired to Colorado’s sunny Western Slope for the laidback mountain lifestyle but bought into a community purpose-built for workers during the oil shale boom of the 1980s, should you be shocked when drilling rigs sprout like pinon pines in your neighborhood?

Battlement Mesa residents are grappling with that question these days after Denver-based Antero Resources recently struck a deal to drill up to 200 gas wells from 10 pads right in town — some within a few hundred feet of homes and the municipal golf course.

Oil giants have “cornered the market” on Western Slope water rights, study says

Six energy companies with plans for large-scale oil shale development on the Western Slope, led by ExxonMobil and Shell, have “cornered the market” on water in northwestern Colorado.

The study by Boulder-based Western Resource Advocates concludes that the oil shale activity envisioned by energy companies and some state and federal lawmakers would consume as much water as the entire Denver metro area on an annual basis.

Oil companies mum on Western Skies; millions pumped into Amendment 58

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.