The Pitkin County commissioners have rekindled the idea of taking a much tougher regulatory stance on natural gas drilling in the Thompson Divide area west of Carbondale, according to the Aspen Times.
The Colorado Petroleum Association (CPA) today dropped its bid to get the state to roll back its rule for proper disposal of pit liners used in the oil and gas drilling process. Rule 905 was one of the revised oil and gas drilling regulations most criticized by the industry after the new, more environmentally stringent rules went into effect in the spring of 2009. The CPA withdrew its petition at today’s Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) meeting, eliciting praise from the environmental community.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) today withdrew its lawsuit against the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission over the process that led to the state’s revised and still hotly debated oil and gas drilling regulations that went into effect in 2009.
Republican Garfield County commissioner candidate Tom Jankovsky has consistently echoed the GOP party line this campaign season, blasting away at amended oil and gas drilling regulations that went into effect last year and blaming them for the natural gas bust many observers attribute to a global recession.
Time for the other shoe to drop in gas-rich Garfield County. First came the recession-fueled natural gas drilling bust starting in late ’08, and now comes the precipitous drop in tax revenues officials have been predicting in the Gas Patch…
State officials have struck a deal with Exxon Mobil, EnCana, Williams and other major oil and gas companies operating in the Piceance Basin of Colorado’s Western Slope, agreeing to minimize impacts to wildlife when drilling in important habitat areas.
Gov.…
Republicans campaigning for the governor’s office in November keep hammering on the “job-killing” amended oil and gas drilling regulations championed by Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter in 2008 and 2009.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has said
DENVER – Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper Wednesday responded to accusations of flip-flopping on oil and gas regulations first made at a tea party rally in Estes Park Tuesday by potential Republican opponent Scott McInnis. Hickenlooper said that while he has said some of the rules enacted in the spring of 2009 went too far, he has never said he planned to change those rules.
All was relatively quiet on the Western Slope in terms of oil and gas legislation this past session, perhaps reflecting an overall weariness after more than a year of wrangling over the controversial drilling regulations introduced last spring.
Predictions of economic doom that surrounded the environmentally tougher oil and gas drilling regulations put in place in Colorado more than a year ago would seem to have lost power. The political rhetoric has cooled somewhat, other states are now weighing implementing their own Colorado-style regs, and drilling activity is slowly picking up again on the Western Slope.
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