Colorado regulators say the subset of wells tested were known to be troubled, and many have already been plugged and abandoned
Colorado Oil and Gas Association
Posted inEnvironment
Polis orders Colorado regulators to set new rules for oil and gas industry to sharply cut ozone by 2030
The governor’s directive also orders the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to redouble efforts to consider health and the environment
Posted inBusiness
Colorado oil and gas companies offer $459 million to guarantee their wells are plugged eventually
The plans seek to meet new state financial requirements, but some smaller operators are hoping to put up only a fraction of the needed funds.
Posted inEnvironment
Colorado’s air pollution permitting process for oil and gas, other industries may get a lot stricter
Lawmakers and environmental groups say state agencies move far too slow while ozone violations pile up, and want to dictate executive action
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 […]