Garfield County

Backers of the controversial FRAC (Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals) Act, including co-sponsor Diana DeGette (D-Denver), were quick to caution Thursday that a proposed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study of hydraulic fracturing shouldn’t be seen as an alternative to legislation.

Colorado oil and gas industry officials continue to fall back on new state drilling regulations to fend off more county or federal scrutiny, even as their trade association challenges the Colorado rules in court. The irony appears lost on the Garfield County commissioners.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis will continue to pound on Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter’s more environmentally stringent oil-and-gas drilling regulations despite the fact that Ritter has pulled out of the race, according to McInnis spokesman Sean Duffy.

“Whichever Democrat is chosen [to run for governor]-– whether he’s chosen by the Democratic Party or the White House — [he or she will] have to defend the Democratic record on jobs or discuss how they believe the Democrats have been wrong,” Duffy told the Colorado Independent Monday. “So that’s a conversation they can have amongst themselves.”

State Rep. Kathleen Curry, who recently stunned political observers with her switch from Democrat to Independent, told the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel she doesn’t think Gov. Bill Ritter pushing through environmentally tougher oil and gas drilling regulations last spring led to his decision Wednesday not to seek a second term. She did, however, say the [...]

Opponents of natural gas drilling in the Western Slope community of Battlement Mesa are pointing to a New Year’s Day fire on an Antero Resources well-pad south of Silt as another reason for Garfield County officials to reject the Denver-based company’s proposal to drill up to 200 wells in their town of 5,000.
County health officials, [...]

The top doc for a nonprofit group pushing health impact studies as part of the public decision-making process on major development projects recently had high praise for the Garfield County commissioners, who decided they may be able to fund such a study in the community of Battlement Mesa.

Based on the experiences of one small town in Texas, residents of the Colorado Western Slope community of Battlement Mesa are right to be worried about the potential air-quality impacts of a proposal to drill up to 200 natural gas wells in their area.
According to the Dallas Morning News Denton Record-Chronicle, the Denton County town [...]

Noble Energy’s plans to drill nearly 80 natural gas wells within three miles of the Project Rulison underground nuclear blast site in Garfield County recently received the go-ahead from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, according to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.
None of the 79 wells approved by the BLM would be within the half-mile [...]

ExxonMobil’s acquisition of natural gas giant XTO Energy – the hot topic in the gas-field communities of Colorado’s Western Slope this week – has implications far beyond an industry typically dominated by smaller, independent operators.
According to National Public Radio, ExxonMobil, the largest, most powerful lobby in Washington, is now conflicted on the climate change legislation [...]

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.
Rio Blanco County impact fees are unique in the nation and viewed by some observers as [...]