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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper kept anti-fracking citizen initiatives off the ballot last year when he created a task force to recommend ways to minimize land use conflicts that can occur when siting Oil & Gas facilities near homes, schools, businesses and recreational areas. The task force spent six months gathering public comment and considering ways to balance quality-of-life issues with energy development. The task force recommendations, delivered in late February, amounted to a Rorschach ink-blot test on oil and gas development: citizen activists decried the report for not addressing their concerns about local control, while members of the state's Energy Industry praised the task force's forward progress.
The 21-member task force was split evenly between oil and gas interests, elected officials and citizen/environmental activists. The task force produced nine recommendations but failed to reach the requisite two-thirds majority on seven other issues. A series of rulemakings will kick off shortly to address several of the recommendations. But it looks like ballot initiatives to ban or restrict hydraulic fracturing will be part of the ballot in Colorado in 2016, returning the state to the pitched controversy it hoped to avoid with the creation of the task force.
States with significant oil and gas development have watched as Colorado works through the various land-use issues associated with drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Some observers dubbed the Centennial State "ground zero" in the fight over regulating fracking. For more on the 2014 ballot initiatives that were withdrawn and the reasons for the creation of the task force, see August 4, 2014, article - Oil & Gas Industry Sees Brisk Business in Colorado after Withdrawal of Voter Initiatives.
On receiving the task force's recommendations in late February, Hickenlooper said: "We commend the task force for literally thousands of hours of volunteer work. Their determination and willingness to really hear each other was remarkable, and their recommendations are significant in both breadth and the level of consensus they achieved. They made undeniable progress for all of Colorado today, and we are extremely grateful for their work."
"We have not rested in addressing the tough issues that come with balancing quality of life with an important and thriving industry," continued Hickenlooper, a petroleum geologist by training and now in his second and final term as Colorado's governor. "From advances in groundwater protections and methane limits to today's recommendations that ensure protection of people, industry and the environment, working together is how we always find the right solutions for Colorado."
One task force recommendation the state legislature enacted was funding 12 new regulatory staff at the state's Oil & Gas Conservation Commission. The legislature also appropriated money for new staff and equipment at the Department of Health and Environment to conduct mobile air monitoring. The legislature also funded a hotline for oil and gas-related concerns and an online information repository.
Former Colorado Governor Bill Owens, now co-chair of the industry-funded Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development (CRED) (Denver, Colorado), said: "The fact that a diverse group like this (task force) could agree on one thing, let alone nine, is indicative of Colorado's collaborative style of bringing varying interests to the table to find common ground. As one process ends and another begins, I urge the recommendations be approved expeditiously."
Roy Romer, another former Colorado governor and the other co-chair of CRED, added: "The people of Colorado were well-served by this deliberative process, and the Task Force's recommendations will make one of the best regulatory systems in the country even better."
But those who oppose oil and gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing were disappointed the task force did not endorse one of their main goals: allowing local communities to adopt rules on drilling and fracking that were more stringent than state-wide standards. Failing to secure a task force recommendation on enhanced local control measures made a return of ballot initiatives all but inevitable, observers said.
A proposed environmental bill of rights, which would affect oil and gas drilling, already has been filed at the Colorado Secretary of State's office. If that measure gathers enough signatures, it would appear on the statewide ballot in November 2016.
"I think many of us suspected ballot initiatives were going to come back in 2016," Polly Page, a former Arapahoe County commissioner and member of the state's public utilities commission, told Industrial Info. Page, who was not a member of the governor's task force, believes drilling and hydraulic fracturing is being done safely and in a manner that protects the environment. She also believes local governments have adequate means at their disposal to regulate oil and gas drilling.
After the task force released its recommendations, Colorado House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, also not a member of the task force, told The Denver Post: "We may just have to go to an initiative on this. I'm not averse to doing that." In a subsequent statement from her office, Hullinghorst said she thinks the "ballot initiative conversation is premature."
After the task force made its recommendations, another member of that group, U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, who had backed the 2014 ballot measures, said, "Unfortunately, the oil and gas industry proved they weren't interested in a compromise or solving the problem." Polis was sharply criticized last year by some of his constituents when he agreed to pull initiatives he supported off the ballot in exchange for creation of the task force.
In elections last month in Denver, environmental and community activists mounted a "Don't Frack Denver" campaign to try to press mayoral and city council candidates to enact a ban on hydraulic fracturing within Denver's city limits. The campaign was not successful, but activists remain optimistic about the potential to enact future limits.
"We believe that the current Denver community and our future generations have the right to clean water, clean air, and to a protected quality of life," Greenpeace campaign coordinator Michael Gately said in the news release. "We stand with Denver residents in asking local officials to represent those who put them in office by keeping fracking out of our community, and in doing so protecting our health and well-being."
Sources close to Governor Hickenlooper said he is continuing efforts to significantly strengthen state-wide regulation of the Oil & Gas Industry. They point to a series of rulemakings over the last few years that have toughened protection for the state's air and water, lengthened permissible distances between drilling and neighborhoods, required disclosure of hydraulic fracturing chemicals, reduced the effects of light, noise and odors, tightened spill tracking and dramatically toughened penalties for rule violations.
Colorado enacted a tough air-quality rule to detect and reduce methane emissions across the lifecycle of oil and gas development, from drilling to production to maintenance. For more on that issue, see December 3, 2013, article - Oil & Gas Companies Collaborate with Environmental Group to Draft Tough New Air Quality Regulations in Colorado.
"It looks like drilling opponents will be satisfied with nothing less than enhanced local control initiatives, but courts already have overturned those measures because they conflict with state law," said Jesus Davis, Industrial Info's vice president of research for Oil & Gas Production, Pipelines and Terminals. "After losing in the courts and in the governor's task force, I suppose it is inevitable that they would turn to citizen initiatives to achieve their aims. Unfortunately, fear is a great motivator, and in the current political environment, it's easier to oppose an unfamiliar industrial process like drilling and fracking than it is to support it. The industry has its work cut out for it."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.
The 21-member task force was split evenly between oil and gas interests, elected officials and citizen/environmental activists. The task force produced nine recommendations but failed to reach the requisite two-thirds majority on seven other issues. A series of rulemakings will kick off shortly to address several of the recommendations. But it looks like ballot initiatives to ban or restrict hydraulic fracturing will be part of the ballot in Colorado in 2016, returning the state to the pitched controversy it hoped to avoid with the creation of the task force.
States with significant oil and gas development have watched as Colorado works through the various land-use issues associated with drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Some observers dubbed the Centennial State "ground zero" in the fight over regulating fracking. For more on the 2014 ballot initiatives that were withdrawn and the reasons for the creation of the task force, see August 4, 2014, article - Oil & Gas Industry Sees Brisk Business in Colorado after Withdrawal of Voter Initiatives.
On receiving the task force's recommendations in late February, Hickenlooper said: "We commend the task force for literally thousands of hours of volunteer work. Their determination and willingness to really hear each other was remarkable, and their recommendations are significant in both breadth and the level of consensus they achieved. They made undeniable progress for all of Colorado today, and we are extremely grateful for their work."
"We have not rested in addressing the tough issues that come with balancing quality of life with an important and thriving industry," continued Hickenlooper, a petroleum geologist by training and now in his second and final term as Colorado's governor. "From advances in groundwater protections and methane limits to today's recommendations that ensure protection of people, industry and the environment, working together is how we always find the right solutions for Colorado."
One task force recommendation the state legislature enacted was funding 12 new regulatory staff at the state's Oil & Gas Conservation Commission. The legislature also appropriated money for new staff and equipment at the Department of Health and Environment to conduct mobile air monitoring. The legislature also funded a hotline for oil and gas-related concerns and an online information repository.
Former Colorado Governor Bill Owens, now co-chair of the industry-funded Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development (CRED) (Denver, Colorado), said: "The fact that a diverse group like this (task force) could agree on one thing, let alone nine, is indicative of Colorado's collaborative style of bringing varying interests to the table to find common ground. As one process ends and another begins, I urge the recommendations be approved expeditiously."
Roy Romer, another former Colorado governor and the other co-chair of CRED, added: "The people of Colorado were well-served by this deliberative process, and the Task Force's recommendations will make one of the best regulatory systems in the country even better."
But those who oppose oil and gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing were disappointed the task force did not endorse one of their main goals: allowing local communities to adopt rules on drilling and fracking that were more stringent than state-wide standards. Failing to secure a task force recommendation on enhanced local control measures made a return of ballot initiatives all but inevitable, observers said.
A proposed environmental bill of rights, which would affect oil and gas drilling, already has been filed at the Colorado Secretary of State's office. If that measure gathers enough signatures, it would appear on the statewide ballot in November 2016.
"I think many of us suspected ballot initiatives were going to come back in 2016," Polly Page, a former Arapahoe County commissioner and member of the state's public utilities commission, told Industrial Info. Page, who was not a member of the governor's task force, believes drilling and hydraulic fracturing is being done safely and in a manner that protects the environment. She also believes local governments have adequate means at their disposal to regulate oil and gas drilling.
After the task force released its recommendations, Colorado House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, also not a member of the task force, told The Denver Post: "We may just have to go to an initiative on this. I'm not averse to doing that." In a subsequent statement from her office, Hullinghorst said she thinks the "ballot initiative conversation is premature."
After the task force made its recommendations, another member of that group, U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, who had backed the 2014 ballot measures, said, "Unfortunately, the oil and gas industry proved they weren't interested in a compromise or solving the problem." Polis was sharply criticized last year by some of his constituents when he agreed to pull initiatives he supported off the ballot in exchange for creation of the task force.
In elections last month in Denver, environmental and community activists mounted a "Don't Frack Denver" campaign to try to press mayoral and city council candidates to enact a ban on hydraulic fracturing within Denver's city limits. The campaign was not successful, but activists remain optimistic about the potential to enact future limits.
"We believe that the current Denver community and our future generations have the right to clean water, clean air, and to a protected quality of life," Greenpeace campaign coordinator Michael Gately said in the news release. "We stand with Denver residents in asking local officials to represent those who put them in office by keeping fracking out of our community, and in doing so protecting our health and well-being."
Sources close to Governor Hickenlooper said he is continuing efforts to significantly strengthen state-wide regulation of the Oil & Gas Industry. They point to a series of rulemakings over the last few years that have toughened protection for the state's air and water, lengthened permissible distances between drilling and neighborhoods, required disclosure of hydraulic fracturing chemicals, reduced the effects of light, noise and odors, tightened spill tracking and dramatically toughened penalties for rule violations.
Colorado enacted a tough air-quality rule to detect and reduce methane emissions across the lifecycle of oil and gas development, from drilling to production to maintenance. For more on that issue, see December 3, 2013, article - Oil & Gas Companies Collaborate with Environmental Group to Draft Tough New Air Quality Regulations in Colorado.
"It looks like drilling opponents will be satisfied with nothing less than enhanced local control initiatives, but courts already have overturned those measures because they conflict with state law," said Jesus Davis, Industrial Info's vice president of research for Oil & Gas Production, Pipelines and Terminals. "After losing in the courts and in the governor's task force, I suppose it is inevitable that they would turn to citizen initiatives to achieve their aims. Unfortunately, fear is a great motivator, and in the current political environment, it's easier to oppose an unfamiliar industrial process like drilling and fracking than it is to support it. The industry has its work cut out for it."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.
