Hickenlooper forms task force to address drilling regulations

DenverPost.com
2/29/2012
Mark Jaffe

Facing a rash of local initiatives to control oil and gas drilling, Gov. John Hickenlooper Monday created a task force to "clarify" the roles of state an local governments in regulating drilling.

"This is an important step to better define state and local jurisdiction regulatory structures as Colorado's oil and gas industry continues to grow," Hickenlooper said.

Spurred by the discovery of oil in the Niobrara formation, which stretches from El Paso County to the Wyoming border, companies have been buying up mineral leases and ramping up drilling.

In 2011, Weld County had the most drilling activity in the West, according to a study by Headwaters Economics, a Montana-based natural resource consultant.

That lead 10 Front Range municipalities and counties to develop drilling rules, raising concerns among drillers that projects could be stalled.

"This is makes attracting investment a real challenge," said Tisha Schuller, president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, a trade group, which will have a spot on the task force.

The task force also will include a representative the Colorado Petroleum Association, two members of the state oil and gas conservation commission and one environmental group representative.

"The composition of the task force seems weighted in favor of industry," Kate Zimmerman, the National Wildlife Federation's senior policy adviser, said in a statement.

Continue reading...  Who's on the task force?

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Who the hell got to select the task force members? This is botched from the start. Apologetic,special interest, backdoor soothsayers,with hands in your cookie jar.

 Let the people vote.

Colorado: Facing boom, Huerfano County citizens group makes push for tougher oil and gas drilling regulations

Posted on November 19, 2011
by Bob Berwyn   
Summit County Citizens Voice

“We don’t want our communities to become yet another industrial sacrifice zone.”

~Ken Saydak

Fracking rigs are popping up like mushrooms,

and citizens of Huerfano County, Colorado

 are concerned about impacts to their communities

and the environment.

SUMMIT COUNTY — With the leasing of almost 40,000 acres of BLM mineral rights in Huerfano County, citizens are pressing their county commissioners to adopt tougher local oil and gas drilling regulations.

The commissioners this week voted to adopt new regulations following a boisterous public hearing, but those might not be tough enough. Dozens of residents expressed concerns that the regulations don’t go far enough to protect citizens from the harmful effects of natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

“These regulations may have been the best in Colorado in 1997, but are they adequate in 2011 to protect citizens from fracking in a high risk geological environment for drilling like Huerfano County?” said Sandy Borthick, a member of Citizens for Huerfano County, a recently formed 400-member group.

Huerfano County initially adopted the regulations in 2009 after Coal Bed Methane drilling caused widespread problems including explosions, contaminated drinking wells, water depletions and decimation of a local dairy farm.

At the time the commissioners titled the regulations to only apply to CBM. According to County Planner Steve Channel, the BOCC didn’t want to apply the regulations to “deeper drilling that had been operating for years in the county without incident.” Those drilling operations included several natural gas wells and a large CO2 gas well complex.

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