While Gov. John Hickenlooper, industry leaders and environment advocates praised Colorado’s new statewide air-pollution rules for oil and gas operations, local elected officials and community activists are launching campaigns to buttress local control.
The elected officials, 50 from around the state, have sent a letter urging Hickenlooper and state lawmakers to reinforce local land-use power over oil and gas development.
Separately, Local Control Colorado, a coalition of community activists, is preparing to gather signatures for a November ballot measure that would amend the state constitution to allow stricter local limits.
“It is wishful thinking to think that better state air-emission rules are going to solve all the problems,” said Boulder County Commissioner Elise Jones, a leader of the local government coalition who backed the state air rules. “But this does not change the fact that communities across Colorado want a say in whether or not industrial oil and gas activity can happen 501 feet from people’s homes. Local governments need that authority to decide their destiny.”
Approval of the statewide pollution rules and the continued push for greater local control come as the state is still embroiled in a legal battle over local power. The attorney general is suing Longmont over its rules for drilling. Four cities have permanently or temporarily banned hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
The state air rules add to regulations aimed at balancing oil and gas development with public health and the environment. They are calculated to cut industry emissions of volatile organic compounds, which lead to formation of ozone, and also the greenhouse gas methane, linked to climate change.
State agencies already require 500-foot buffer zones between oil and gas facilities and homes, monitoring of groundwater and disclosure of toxic chemicals.
At a gathering Tuesday in the state Capitol with Anadarko, Noble, Encana, the Environmental Defense Fund and state health leaders, Hickenlooper said Colorado has “the most rigorous air and water regulations around oil and gas in the country, without question.”
Hickenlooper also acknowledged the festering concerns and conflict in communities — friction he linked to Colorado’s split-estate system that obligates surface landowners to give reasonable access to owners of rights to underground oil and gas.
“Those elected leaders are all elected by the surface owners,” he said. “There’s no election by the people who own the mineral rights. They have no voice. If you block those mineral rights, … the U.S. Supreme Court is going to come back and call that a taking.”
Tougher state rules won’t satisfy residents intent on banning all drilling now, Hickenlooper said. But the reality is “that natural gas is going to be the transition fuel for a good many years as we move to a cleaner overall energy component,” he said.
Colorado Oil and Gas Association president Tisha Schuller said industry opponents of the state air rules will not challenge them in court.
“We’re going to focus on how we can implement these rules effectively,” she said. “We lost.”
Noble, Encana and Anadarko and other industry leaders helped craft and supported the rules. Senior executives say they are tough but cost- effective and fair.
“All businesses require a consistent, stable regulatory framework in order to invest for the future, and state-level authorities are best equipped to provide that structure,” Anadarko spokeswoman Robin Olsen said. “We support the current robust regulatory structure already in place in Colorado.”
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700, bfinley@denverpost.com or twitter.com/finleybruce
