​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.

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.  

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.

​Oil and natural gas pairs well with renewable energy. In fact, many oil and natural gas companies invest in, buy, or have joint ventures in solar, wind, and other renewable fuels. Why? Because the industry believes in an all-the-above strategy for effective energy production.

​Siting an oil and natural gas facility involves several factors, starting with mineral ownership and an operator’s ability to physically access that property with modern horizontal drilling practices, and ending with conditional requirements often required by local governments.

​The oil and natural gas industry prides itself on finding constructive solutions to complex issues that arise with developing Colorado’s energy resources in rapidly urbanizing areas. One such issue was the buffer zone between schools, child care facilities, and oil and natural gas drilling.