Drilling issues still stir up state
Several Front Range cities grapple with how to handle a surge in permits.
Whether local governments should have more say over oil and gas drilling remained a potent issue this week at the ballot box and at the municipal dais, with multiple Front Range communities grappling with how to handle a surge in drilling permits.
On Tuesday, 57.5 percent of the voters in Broomfield gave their government more authority over the industry.
Industry forces said the ballot initiative in Broomfield was not in compliance with state law and was sure to invite costly litigation that taxpayers would have to pay. Even though the courts have ruled that state power to regulate the industry trumps local measures, local residents continue to push local elected officials for action at
a time when oil and gas interests also have mobilized themselves politically.
The night before voters went to the polls, the Lafayette City Council passed a six-month moratorium on oil and gas drilling to give time for the city to forge new regulations. Hours after Lafayette acted, industry-backed City Council candidates won elections in Greeley while an engineer who works for Noble Energy, the second-largest driller in the state, narrowly beat back a challenge to a council seat she holds in Thornton.
One night after election night, controversy continued to erupt, this time in Adams County over plans for 26 wells near Silver Creek Elementary School in Thornton. Homeowners near that proposed well site asked Adams County commissioners to block the wells.
“This is a very volatile, salient issue at the moment,” political consultant Eric Sondermann said. “It’s not going away, … and it’s going to be front and center in 2018, and probably indefinitely into the future.”
All the skirmishing is coming in advance of a projected drilling boom across the Front Range that could last as long as 30 years. Many local government officials say they are trying to respond to angry residents who are jamming public meetings and demanding action.
“We’re at a crossroads, I think, as a state,” said Lafayette Mayor Christine Berg. “Who do we want to be? Do we want oil and gas to continue to operate with impunity and continue to develop closer and closer to our neighborhoods and schools? This is a big issue.”
Industry forces have fought back, signaling they probably will take the Broomfield voter initiative and Lafayette moratorium to the courts, where oil and gas interests prevailed in the past. Last year, the Colorado Supreme Court struck down efforts by Fort Collins and Longmont to regulate the industry. Lower courts thwarted similar efforts by Boulder and Larimer counties. The courts have said the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission — not local governments — has ultimate authority over where operators can drill.
“It is hard to see how Ordinance 43 will do anything other than lead to costly — and avoidable — litigation for Lafayette,” wrote Tracee Bentley, executive director of the Colorado Petroleum Council in a letter she sent to the Lafayette City Council before it approved the moratorium. “As you know, Boulder County has already been sued (and lost) this year over its oil and gas moratorium, with legal bills paid for by taxpayers. It defies reason why Lafayette would follow the same path, and with a full understanding that Ordinance 43 is preempted by state law.”
Berg said “frustration is at an all-time high” over drilling throughout the Front Range. She said concerns have been enhanced by the fatal house explosion in Firestone in April that was linked to a severed natural gas pipeline. Controversies over drilling are likely to spill over into next year’s open-seat races for governor and attorney general, she predicted.
Berg pointed to a Colorado Court of Appeals ruling from March that said the protection of public health and the environment as “a condition that must be fulfilled” by the state before oil and gas drilling can be done. “That case is an important one,” she said. “We are not afraid of the lawsuits.”
“We’re going to try to ensure we have strongest regulations possible and push for better leadership on this issue at the state level,” Berg said.
Industry forces say it’s not fair to say state officials haven’t acted. They point out that state regulators have adopted methane rules for drillers. Regulators in 2013 also adopted a rule requiring a 500-foot buffer from existing homes statewide for new wells. Oil and gas advocates say leaving regulations up to local governments will crimp an industry they contend supports more than 230,000 jobs in Colorado.
The Broomfield initiative, known as Question 301, attracted nearly $400,000 from groups either pushing for passage or trying to block it. Most of that came from the extraction industry, which put up $345,000 — in both monetary and in-kind contributions in a failed effort to defeat it.