Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, Health, News, Politics and Government

Report that oil field methane emissions are down by half is wrong, Front Range cities with own pollution monitors say

Air pollution from oil and gas operations is on the wane, the industry says. But communities along the Front Range — with their own air monitors — counter that they are finding repeated spikes of methane and other pollutants. “Ground-level methane monitoring shows no decline in levels,” Cindy Copeland, an air and climate policy advisor […]

Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, Equity, News, Politics and Government

First-in-the-U.S. rules that give oil and gas industry leeway in slashing emissions OK’d in Colorado

Colorado air regulators have adopted a sweeping set of rules to slash methane emissions from oil and gas operations, including a controversial, first-in-the nation program giving industry a freer hand in determining how to cut pollution. The “intensity program,” under which operators will have to reduce emissions by set percentages based on the amount of […]

Posted inBusiness, Environment, News, Politics and Government

Oil and gas regulators dial back rules that keep industry from sticking Colorado with bill for orphan wells

Trying to balance a mandate to ensure the state is not stuck with abandoned oil and gas wells against the financial needs of the industry, Colorado regulators have issued a revised plan that has buoyed operators and left environmentalists in despair. Gone from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s initial draft rule for financial […]

Posted inEnvironment, Health, News

Colorado may have more sites with dangerous “forever chemicals” than any other state

Colorado may have more locations where dangerous PFAS “forever chemicals” are stored and used than any other state in the U.S., according to a database released by the EPA after challenges from a watchdog group.  About 21,000 industrial sites in Colorado appear on the previously undisclosed EPA database of locations that “may be handling” PFAS, […]

Posted inBusiness, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government

Nearly half of Colorado’s 52,000 wells produce little or no oil. Who’ll pay to plug them?

Sticking out like a sore thumb in the otherwise bucolic, rolling pastures and fields of hay, sit four rusting oil tanks, “Out of Service” stenciled on their sides, along with a scattering of other weathered and unusable equipment. For the better part of three years, Jon and Susanne Stephens have, without success, been trying to […]

Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government

Effort to force Colorado to cut greenhouse emissions faster exposes exasperation with Polis administration

For more than a year, frustrated Colorado lawmakers and environmental groups have struggled to push the Polis administration to move faster to meet mandated cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Now they are advancing a bill to set emission caps and deadlines — over the objections of the governor.  The Senate Transportation and Energy Committee moved […]