From Denver Business Journal
Gov. Jared Polis and Democratic legislative leaders rolled out the long-awaited framework Thursday of a bill to increase regulations around oil and gas wells, confirming previous statements about their plans to change the mission and guiding principles of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and offering further details about the wide scope of regulatory authority they hope to grant to local governments.
The bill, which is expected to be introduced in the coming days, would allow city and county governments to have land-use authority over wells and drilling rigs in order to protect public health, safety, welfare, air and water. It also would allow them to regulate land use, surface impacts, sitings of the wells and nuisances such as noise and lighting issues caused by the drilling.
Also, the bill, as previously suggested by House Speaker K.C. Becker and Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg, will seek to change the mission of the COGCC to eliminate its goal to foster the industry, instead requiring it to consider public health and safety above all other factors when considering drilling applications. It also will add a commissioner with expertise in public health, will require location disclosure and enhanced monitoring of pipelines and will provide more finances to the state to help with the process of capping orphaned wells, Polis explained at an afternoon news conference in the Capitol.
Immediate reaction from both industry and business leaders and from anti-fracking activists was muted, as officials from a number of groups expressed surprise in the lead-up to the news conference that they had not been able to see the bill or its details yet. Colorado Rising, which sponsored the unsuccessful 2018 initiative to create 2,500-foot setbacks from wells and has talked about bringing another measure to the 2020 ballot, issued a statement from communications director Anne Lee Foster saying it will diligently review the bill to see if it eliminates the industry’s ability to “thrive on seemingly innocuous loophole that allows them to skirt the full effect of the law and regulations.”
Fenberg, who with Becker took the lead in months-long negotiations, said the goal was to put forward a bill that addressed the concerns of residents who are coming into increasingly close contact with oil and gas wells and ensure protection for them in their homes without destroying the oil and gas industry, which provides 230,000 jobs in this state and generates $31 billion in annual economic impact.
“The legislation we will be introducing in the coming days is not window dressing. But it is not an attack on an industry,” Fenberg said. “We wrote the bill. The industry did not write the bill. Activists did not write the bill.”
However, the bill is written in a way that will give a lot of leeway to local governments on how to interpret what could be its newfound ability to regulate an industry whose operations currently are solely the purview of the COGCC. Polis acknowledged that while local governments have siting and land-use power over almost any other business wanting to locate within their borders, oil and gas operates in a “gray” legal area.
The bill does not include any minimum or maximum setbacks that local governments would be allowed to impose, allowing those governments to make those decisions on their own based on health, safety and welfare, Becker said. She and Fenberg both have rejected the idea of a future ballot initiative that would place one-size-fits-all setbacks across the state — though neither said Thursday whether they believed this bill would prevent Colorado Rising from bringing forward such a ballot initiative nor whether they have written the bill to stave off such future ballot initiatives.
Colorado Municipal League Deputy Director Kevin Bommer said in an interview during negotiations over the bill that even his organization of city governments doesn’t believe that municipalities should be allowed to ban drilling within their borders. He said that allowance of more local authority is key to letting each government settle issues around drilling the way that is most appropriate to them, however.
Sen. Mike Foote, a Longmont Democrat who has been the most aggressive advocate of increasing regulations and local authority in recent years, called the coming legislation “a good bill” that seems to address the concerns of local residents who have become worried about the proximity of drilling. But he too declined to predict whether the measure would be enough to stave off future ballot fights that have caused the oil and gas industry to operate for years under a cloud of uncertainty.
“They may have additional issues that aren’t addressed in the bill,” he said of the most fervent anti-fracking activists, many of whom reside in his Boulder County district. “I just don’t know what will happen. But if this bill passes, it will be a major step forward to protecting our families and our communities.”
Business and industry leaders also will take time to scour the details once the measure is introduced, likely early next week. But groups such as the Colorado Oil and Gas Association have warned that if the definition of “local control” remains too ambiguous, that could cause problems both for energy companies and for cities and counties that might look to push too far and cut off economic activity.
Before Thursday’s news conference, a group of 30 business, labor and civic groups sent a letter to Polis asking the new governor, who financed an aborted 2014 ballot initiative to create 2,000-foot setbacks across the state, asking him to respect the will of the voters who rejected setbacks in November and to remember that oil and gas development generates more than $1 billion in taxes annually, including some $600 million for K-12 schools.
“Besides economic impact, Colorado’s energy professionals contribute so much to our communities: They are our friends, family members, neighbors, and community volunteers who give countless hours and resources to our communities and charities,” the letter read. “We ask that you defend the jobs of oil and natural gas professionals just as you defend the jobs of working men and women in other sectors of our economy.”
Erin Martinez, whose home was destroyed and whose husband and brother were killed in a 2017 explosion in Firestone caused by natural gas leaking from a nearby well, said she understood both the activist and industry standpoints — but added there is room to act in a way that is responsible to all sectors.
“I understand that no one ever intended this to happen. I have no desire to destroy an industry. Lots of good people rely on this industry,” she said at Thursday’s news conference. “However, with great tragedy should come great change … With the proper checks, balances and safety protocols, we can prevent this type of tragedy from ever happening again.”
