Tag: Grand Valley Citizens Alliance

Even as state oil and gas regulators mull over new rules for the disclosure of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, the Colorado Supreme Court is pondering whether citizen activist groups can intervene on matters like the ultimate frack job in 1969 using a 43-kiloton nuclear bomb.

For decades, Royal Dutch Shell – Europe’s largest energy company – has been known in Colorado as the king of oil shale research, spending an estimated $200 million on an experimental and controversial extraction process that has yet to be proven commercially viable. But Shell and its American subsidiaries have increasingly been moving into natural gas drilling in the United States, including a well permit pulled in southern Colorado that has touched off a firestorm of debate over state versus local control of drilling operations and just how much public input should be allowed.

Burleson LLP, a top national energy law firm that recently opened a Denver office, this week announced the hiring of one of the top enforcement officials from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) – the state agency that regulates oil and gas drilling. The move raised some eyebrows in the environmental community.

Western Slope oil and gas watchdog groups this week questioned whether the new board members appointed to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) last week by Gov. John Hickenlooper will lean too heavily toward industry and Front Range concerns.

As the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) works to catch up on a backlog of old spill enforcement cases dating back several years, the method by which the state regulatory agency publicizes any fines that are levied against operators has become a topic of conversation for conservation groups tracking the industry.

GARFIELD COUNTY - Democrats drew up the blueprint on how to dominate a state in Colorado’s 2008 general election, but Republicans wrote the game plan for snatching a local election using outside oil and gas money – and they’re apparently sticking to it in 2010 Garfield County commissioners race.

The worsening Deepwater Horizon oil spill may be grabbing all the headlines lately, but several much smaller incidents in Colorado and neighboring states are...

The debate over the health of the natural gas industry will shape the 2010 campaign for the governor’s office, key seats in the state legislature and even local-level county commissioner races. Unsurprisingly, there are fundamental disagreements about what is happening on the ground in gas country.

The head of the state agency that oversees oil and gas drilling in Colorado says it’s too early to commit to a baseline health study in a Western Slope community wary of plans to site up to 200 natural gas wells near homes and on its municipal golf course.

A grass-roots citizen’s group troubled by air and water pollution from natural gas drilling in Garfield County expressed “extreme disappointment” Monday when the county commissioners voted 2-1 to oppose more federal oversight of the industry.