New Oil and Gas Drilling Rules Proving Thorny in Colorado

"Colorado continues to struggle to find a compromise strong enough to prevent the unraveling of an uneasy truce on oil and gas drilling in populated areas," according to an article by Aldo Svaldi.

Rule-making hearings by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) stalled last week, according to Svaldi, after 14 months of work toward determining "which drilling projects will fall under the scrutiny of the new rules, whether state regulators have the power to limit the length of time drilling occurs, and whether the regulations as proposed are meaningful or necessary."

The potential regulation pits oil and gas companies against local governments and other stakeholders. Svaldi details a few examples of the approximately 100 rules the COGCC has considered during the rule-making process. Two critical concepts that have proven difficult to resolve: 1) what size operation constitutes large-scale and 2) what parts of the state should be defined as urban mitigation areas.

Another issue complicating the discussions are local governments (Weld and Garfield counties, specifically) concerned that new rules would be duplicative of existing local controls and even, potentially, a power grab by the state.