Colorado Oil and Gas Task Force Mission Questioned

KUNC.ORG
By Kirk Siegler

AUDIO LINK

One Republican member of a governor-appointed task force on oil and gas drilling says the panel is little more than political cover for state leaders who don’t want to deal with the controversial issue of fracking – and its spread into populated areas along the Front Range.

After lawmakers killed several bills that would have given local governments more authority to regulate oil and gas drilling, Governor Hickenlooper appointed a 12 member task force to study the thorny issues and potentially make policy recommendations by next month.

There were at times impassioned debates as the task force held its second meeting in Denver Thursday.

“People are furious,” said Brian Bagley, a Longmont city council member. 

Bagley has quickly emerged as one of the task force’s most vocal opponents. 

“I was quoted yesterday as saying that the task force is a joke,” Bagley said. “I was asked specifically, ‘what are your thoughts on the task force,’ and I said, ‘I kind of think it’s a joke,’ because I feel like we’re providing political cover for people I don’t care about.”

Bagley predicted that the panel would get bogged down in process, instead of coming up with solutions so that cities like his could pass their own regulations to limit drilling. 

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How many times do we need to remind the County 'joke' Commissioners from Weld County that your county has, in-fact had over 625 complaints regarding mining/fracking.  We urge you to immediately stop misinforming the public. Your county is a joke and to think that people should live in an industrialized county is ludacris. We have received emails from people in Weld County who are moving because of the very fact they feel their lives and way of life is being sacrificed by the fracking industry.

It appears you are sadly misinformed or are speaking without the facts. Which is it?

Click HERE Weld County Commissioners, for the truth.

One other thing: "Weld County received roughly $50 million in oil and gas revenues in 2011. Why then in 2001 was Weld County Food Bank publicly soliciting for money because 1 in 4 children go hungry?" said Shane Davis of the Coalition for a Clean Colorado (c3)  "It just doesn't make any sense at all."

Councilman Brian Bagley says oil/gas task force a joke

By Scott Rochat
Longmont Times Call 
3/14/2012

Longmont City Councilman Brian Bagley speaks to a small
audience of about 25 during a panel discussion about oil
and gas regulations in Longmont at the American Legion Hall
on Wednesday. Bagley called the state s new oil and gas
task force, of which he is a member a "joke". (Greg Lindstrom) 

LONGMONT -- City Councilman Brian Bagley called the state's new oil and gas task force a "joke" during a Wednesday night panel discussion.

Bagley, who belongs to the task force, called it more interested in process than in getting down to issues, and not even that for long. The first meeting last week was scheduled for three hours, Bagley said, but lasted just 40 minutes.

"I said we're a task force -- aren't we supposed to get on task?" Bagley said during an oil and gas panel convened Wednesday by Longmont's 9-12 Tea Party at the American Legion. "The oil and gas task force is just contributing to the problem, because people don't trust the process."

"Nothing's happening," he said. "The task force is a joke."

The official focus for the task force was the same as Wednesday's panel: finding a balance between state and local drilling regulations. Drilling operations are overseen by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, but several communities have pushed for tighter rules at a local level. A draft set of Longmont regulations, for example, bans drilling in residential zones and mandates "closed-loop" systems for cleanup instead of putting waste in an open pit. Other issues, such as increasing the distance between a well and a home, are part of a set of voluntary rules companies can agree to in exchange for a speeded-up permit process.

The challenge is that some areas are "pre-empted" by the state -- but establishing which ones usually requires a court case to decide if the state's needs or the community's take precedence.

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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.