Colorado’s first comprehensive oil and gas development plan — a new mechanism aimed at better assessing and managing the cumulative impacts of drilling — was approved by state regulators Wednesday, paving the way for more than 200 new wells in Weld County. Kerr-McGee, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp., got a greenlight from Colorado Oil […]
Kate Merlin
Posted inBusiness, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government
Colorado’s largest driller still wants to put wells within 2,000 feet of homes, but offers some concessions
Kerr-McGee reversed course Wednesday and agreed to use an electric rig and non-polluting drilling muds and to pipe waste water off site in a bid to drill oil and gas wells within 2,000 feet of homes in a Firestone neighborhood. Kerr-McGee, the state’s biggest oil and gas producer, announced the concessions during a Colorado Oil […]
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 inBusiness, Climate, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government
A new rule to slash oil and gas emissions appeals to the industry, but Colorado activists worry it won’t work
The Polis administration is banking on an untested, first-in-the-nation type of regulation to sharply cut oil and gas sector emissions to meet state greenhouse gas targets — drawing praise from the industry, but roiling environmental groups and some local officials. The draft “greenhouse gas intensity target” rule, to be submitted to the Air Quality Control […]
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 […]