​Sweeping legislative and regulatory changes between 2018 and 2022 have added almost $500 million in new, annual costs to doing business in Colorado for oil and natural gas companies.  

​The total and individual amounts are taken from state cost-benefit analyses. They do not include new operational costs for which no analysis was conducted, and it does not account for rule changes where no associated economic analysis or cost-benefit analysis were performed. With that in mind, the total is a conservative number with additional, annual operational costs potentially being much higher.

​The Sierra Club supported an “analysis” produced by another anti-fracking group called Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR). The analysis, titled “Fracking with ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Colorado” insinuates that PFAS is being used in Colorado hydraulic fracturing operations and that companies that fail to disclose trade secrets or proprietary information might be hiding other uses of PFAS without evidence.

Published: 6/24/2020

The oil and natural gas molecules produced in Colorado are among the cleanest in the world. Under Colorado’s rigorous regulatory framework and environmental rules that are widely seen as the gold standard, Colorado companies are utilizing state-of-the-art technology and innovation to decrease emissions, reduce leaks, limit venting and flaring, and disturb less land. The end result is abundant, efficient and affordable energy sourced and produced locally in one of the safest and most environmentally sound manners anywhere. That matters, particularly if the alternative is relying on energy produced by countries with poor labor standards and environmental practices.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), “U.S. emissions are now down almost 1 Gt from their peak in the year 2000, the largest absolute decline by any country over that period.” Part of that is due to fuel switching to natural gas, which is a low-carbon fuel. And, according to the EPA, methane emissions are being reduced while production increases. Here in Colorado, industry is making significant strides. 

Published: 10/4/2019

The State of Colorado is a national leader in its commitment to fostering safe and responsible development of Colorado’s oil and gas resources. Over the past nine years Colorado has implemented precedent-setting regulations from baseline groundwater testing and monitoring to air regulations targeting methane leak detection and repair. 

Colorado’s oil and natural gas industry is one of the state’s largest taxpayers.  It also adheres to a system that is unlike any other energy tax framework in the country, making state-to-state comparisons incredibly difficult, if not impossible.  

Thousands of air quality measurements have been taken near oil and natural gas sites in Colorado over the past decade, and no measurement attributable to oil and natural gas has been above EPA or Health and Human Services health guideline values, according to monitoring by the state, industry, and third parties. 

Published: 10/2/2019

​Colorado oil and natural gas operators are an integral part of one of the safest industries in the country. Over the past decade, the oil and natural gas industry’s incident rate has decreased by 41 percent, while doubling the size of its workforce and increasing overall production and the number of drilling rigs.

​Oil and natural gas is one of the most regulated industries in the nation, and statistics prove that it continues to be an industry with a good safety record. The oil and gas industry holds itself to extremely high standards and is always working to improve upon its safety record.

The Colorado Constitution places the power to make laws with the state legislature, the Colorado General Assembly. The General Assembly cannot delegate this power, and no other branch of state government can usurp it. The power to make laws is exercised through the process of considering and adopting bills.

​Protection of Colorado’s groundwater is one of our highest priorities. The oil and natural gas industry coordinates with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) regarding all water related regulatory oversight. 

​Oil and natural gas are an integral part of our everyday lives, and it’s not only the gasoline we put in our cars or the natural gas that heats our homes or businesses. Oil and natural gas are used in everyday products such as lipstick and deodorant and life-saving medical devices, such as MRI machines and pacemakers.

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is a process to extract oil and natural gas deposits from tight rock formations. A mixture of pressurized water, sand, and chemicals is pumped into the formation creating tiny fissures in targeted areas of the source rock. These tiny fissures allow oil and natural gas to escape and flow through piping up to the surface. First tried 70 years ago, hydraulic fracturing became widely used in the last two decades after horizontal drilling began to replace vertical drilling. The combination of horizontal drilling and fracturing allows more efficient recovery of resources with a much smaller environmental footprint than drilling multiple vertical wells. Over 95 percent of the wells in the U.S. are hydraulically fractured at some point during their lifetime.  

From new domestic gas tap rules to specifying where isolation valves must be installed on a flowline, these latest regulations, combined with existing state oversight requirements, provide Colorado with the nation’s most stringent and comprehensive rules for oil and natural gas flowline and production piping systems.