Tag: Matt Garrington

Colorado U.S. Rep. Jared Polis' amendment to strip $25 million in subsidies for oil shale passed the House today on a 208-207 vote. The money will be redirected to deficit reduction. The measure failed earlier in the day by a 192-222 vote but went to a second vote when a member whose vote hadn't been counted asked for a new vote, a source told The Colorado Independent.

A trio of bills designed to invigorate drilling on public lands has a watchdog group casting U.S. Reps. Scott Tipton, Doug Lamborn and Mike Coffman as “the Three Stooges for the oil and gas industry.”

The Senate denied a bill on Tuesday that would have authorized up to 2 million acres of public land for oil shale exploration in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming — not to mention open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other protected areas to drilling.

Chevron is giving up its experimental oil shale lease in Western Colorado. The company is one of only three companies holding a federal lease to research oil shale development in Colorado but officials say they would rather pursue other projects.

Asked why he was Colorado's lone congressional holdout in calling for the extension of the wind tax credit, U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn answered his "preference is to help industry grow by reducing federal regulations and mandates as opposed to carving out special interests in the tax code.”

Oil shale isn't yet commercially viable but on Wednesday the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources passed Rep. Doug Lamborn’s bill to speed up its production in the West anyway.

Coloradans blame market speculation and oil companies for high gas prices, and the vast majority say the best way to bring prices down is to crackdown on market manipulation, according to a poll released Tuesday.

What Republican Congressman Cory Gardner hopes to do for offshore oil and gas drilling in Alaska, his fellow Colorado GOP House member Mike Coffman is looking to do for onshore drilling on federal lands across the country -- strip away perceived environmental regulatory hurdles. Coffman dropped his Facilitating American Security Through Energy Resources Act (FASTER) bill on Monday and immediately got blowback from environmental watchdog groups.

Some conservationists praised the Obama administration’s nomination Thursday of Harris Sherman to the post of Undersecretary of Natural Resources and Environment at the U.S....