Gov. Bill Ritter touts wildlife deals with nine oil and gas companies at the Capitol in Denver Tuesday. Photo by Joe Boven

Republican gubernatorial primary candidates Scott McInnis and Dan Maes have hammered on Ritter for his role in passing the amended drilling regulations that went into effect in the spring of 2009. The new rules and regs give higher priority to air and water quality, public safety and wildlife habitat, requiring a Colorado Divisions of Wildlife consultation on drilling permits.

Tuesday’s deal provides for upfront CDOW approval for drilling plans in the Piceance Basin, which will streamline and speed up the permitting process operators must go through with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Ritter said the downturn in natural gas drilling in Colorado that began late in 2008 was a product of the global recession and decline in prices, not the implementation of amended regulations needed to balance the state’s energy demands with its tourism and outdoor recreation-based economy.

“People have tried to politicize the job loss and the downturn of the market, but all the while the industry and the oil and gas commission was trying to figure out how best to work though the permitting process so that it was industry-friendly,” Ritter said.

McInnis and Maes have both promised to revisit if not outright gut the amended regulations, which they have persistently tried to tie to job losses in energy producing counties like Garfield and Weld. Both candidates have also tried to link Ritter’s policies with presumptive Democratic gubernatorial nominee John Hickenlooper, the mayor of Denver who stepped in when Ritter pulled out of the race late last year.

Hickenlooper, a former oil and gas engineer who was laid off in the 1980s and went into the brew-pub business, has said some of the regulations should be tweaked, but in May he told the Colorado Independent he was not in favor of reopening the rulemaking process.

McInnis, who originally hails from the heart of the gas patch in Glenwood Springs and has served as attorney for the oil and gas industry, has been slightly more circumspect than Maes, who said he would hand out pink slips to anyone with an environmental bent on the oil and gas commission board. Still, McInnis has been plenty critical of the rules, saying they’ve pushed jobs to Pennsylvania and Texas, even though the evidence shows Colorado is ahead of its regional neighbors in permitting and drilling activity.

“It would be a bad idea to roll back the rules,” Ritter said. “Those who are in favor of [a rollback] are merely looking at it as a political issue. They are not looking at this upturn in the economy and our ability to have this balance.”

Asked about the timing of the announcement, in which nine operators – EnCana, Antero, Noble, Williams, Gunnison Energy, Exxon Mobil, Black Hills, Delta and Marathon – announced wildlife mitigation plans or comprehensive drilling plans, Ritter said it’s a sign the industry is onboard with the new regs no matter the political landscape.

“The industry could have just taken an oppositional view and waited it out to see what the election brought, but they didn’t,” Ritter said. “They have been working with us and now we see an upturn in the activity and the kind of announcement we are making today … wouldn’t have happened without the industry.”

Conservationists praised the deals, which will provide habitat protections for elk, deer, raptors, sage grouse and cutthroat trout over 550 square miles of land.

“These plans make good sense because they provide economic certainty for energy developers and habitat stability for wildlife,” said John Gale, the National Wildlife Federation’s regional representative for Colorado. “Like hunting and fishing, energy development is part of life in Colorado. These plans make sure drilling is done the right way and in the right places to protect wildlife.”

COGCC director David Neslin, who has previously said the new wildlife rules were not proving onerous to the industry, on Tuesday said the new wildlife agreements “will allow for development of needed energy supplies while protecting some of our most iconic wildlife species.”

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(Photo/kool_skatcat, Flickr)

Oil and gas companies doing business in Colorado have dropped a mind-blowing $10 million into fighting Amendment 58 — a statewide initiative that would eliminate a tax credit and raise more than $300 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.

Last week the Colorado Independent reported extensively on the Western Skies Coalition, which bills itself as a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization.

Though it has yet to show up as actually registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a nonprofit, Western Skies claims ex-Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, a former oil and gas lobbyist, as a member of its executive committee, along with former U.S. Secretary of Education and drug czar Bill Bennett.

The group was registered in Colorado on April 2 as a Virginia corporation by Sean Tonner, president of the Highlands Ranch-based GOP consulting group Phase Line Strategies, as the group’s registered agent in Colorado. Listed as directors on the organization’s Virginia filing are Tonner and fellow Phase Line employees Katie Behnke and Mike Ciletti.

The three have worked on behalf of numerous high-profile Republicans, including Owens, for whom Tonner served as chief of staff, Ciletti worked as a deputy director of the Office of Innovation and Technology and Behnke was a press assistant.

Sources have indicated that oil and gas money helped pay for TV ads this summer that were designed to portray Republicans Shawn Mitchell (no enemy to big oil) and Libby Szabo as champions of alternative energy. Their opponents claim the intent is clear: to help oil company-friendly Republicans retake control of the Colorado Senate by 2010.

Because Western Skies claims to be a 501(c)4, it does not have to disclose its donors — unlike traditional campaign organizations and 527 groups that have to make their financial backers known in Colorado.

Numerous companies that do business in energy-rich Colorado responded with various degrees of “no comment” when asked whether they contributed money to Owens and Tonner’s charitable nonprofit.

John Christiansen, the spokesman of Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, said last week he was not sure whether the company had made a contribution to Western Skies, and that the company does not disclose any specific amounts it contributes to charities.

“The reason we give to entities is we see value in it, not to see the dollar amount out there,” Christiansen said.

A spokeswoman from Houston-based Noble Energy did not return several messages seeking comment. Nor were messages to Tulsa, Okla.-based Williams energy company returned.

Reached late last week, Wendy Wiedenback, of Calgary, Alberta-based EnCana, indicated she would look into the request, but never returned the call.

And Susan Spratlen, the vice president of corporate communications of Irving, Texas-based Pioneer Natural Resources, said she “cannot confirm one way or another” whether the company has contributed funds to Western Skies.

“We don’t disclose any activity with not-for-profits, whether they are political or charitable,” Spratlen said. “We don’t talk specifics of who we support.”

Not even for campaigns designed to elect candidates to public office?

“We don’t disclose that,” Spratlen said.

Companies may not have to disclose financial contributions or other support — or non-support — when it comes to 501(c)4 nonprofits, but state laws do require contributors to disclose the amounts they have given — in Amendment 58′s case furiously pumped — into statewide political campaigns.

According to state campaign finance reports, eight oil companies have so far contributed $1 million each to battle Amendment 58, a measure designed to raise more than $300 million for college scholarships and other programs, by eliminating the tax credit that energy companies can take for severance taxes in Colorado. The million-dollar contributors include:

• Anadarko
• BP
• Chevron
• ConocoPhillips
• EnCana
• ExxonMobil
• Noble
• Williams