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, […]
Colorado Oil and Gas Association
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 […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Coloradans, Economy, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government
This Erie neighborhood is ground zero for Colorado’s collision of fracking and housing
Seattleites Sandra and Eric Duggan bought their house in Colliers Hill, a sprawling suburban development in Erie, sight unseen. Geoff Winterbourne purchased his Erie home while living in the San Francisco Bay area after a tour on FaceTime. “With the Colorado market the way it is, you only have three or four days to put […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government
Colorado gave local governments more power to regulate oil and gas. And some are using it.
Empowered by a new state law and regulations, towns, cities and counties across the Front Range are flexing their muscle and moving to regulate oil and gas operations that come to town. Two years ago this month, sweeping legislation was signed into law reorienting Colorado’s approach to regulating oil and gas development. That in turn […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Coloradans, Energy, Environment, Housing, News
A disillusioned ExxonMobil engineer quit to take action on climate change. He found his net-zero place in Arvada.
For 16 years, Dar-Lon Chang worked as an engineer at ExxonMobil. Fresh out of graduate school, he was by all accounts exactly the type of person the company is known for hiring: smart, driven, diligent. From his base at Exxon’s sprawling campus outside Houston, Chang helped the company maximize production at far-flung oil and gas […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government
Colorado oil and gas industry blasts Biden’s pause on public lands drilling as environmental advocates cheer
Conservation advocates in the West quickly praised President Joe Biden’s executive order pausing new oil and gas leases on federal lands and in federal waters, while the resource industry and local business backers called it a misguided attack with massive economic fallout. “For far too long, federal lands in Colorado have been leased to big […]
Posted inClimate, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government
Colorado oil and gas regulators finalize new rules for the drilling industry — and themselves
Colorado’s regulatory arm for the energy industry on Monday formally set itself on a new path to prioritize public health and safety, and the environment when making decisions on oil and gas drilling permits. The changes to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission are the result of Senate Bill 181, which was passed by […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, Health, News
“Flaring” at oil and gas wells to be curtailed as Colorado regulators adopt some of nation’s strictest rules
Flaring, the practice of burning off gas from oil and gas wells, will be limited to a handful of state-approved circumstances under the most comprehensive rules in the nation, adopted Thursday by Colorado regulators. “We’ve done a good job for Colorado and the nation,” Jeff Robbins, the chairman of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment, News, Politics and Government
John Hickenlooper’s conflicting record and rhetoric on fracking a point of dispute in U.S. Senate race
A former geologist for an oil and gas company, John Hickenlooper emerged as one of the industry’s most vocal Democratic supporters in his two terms as Colorado governor. He drank fracking fluid from Halliburton to prove its safety. He opposed tougher regulations and threatened to sue local governments that banned fracking. And he lauded the […]