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Colorado Oil and Gas Industry Faces New Drilling Laws

by KREX News Room
by Cori Coffin

Story Created: Jan 22, 2012 at 11:54 PM MDT

Story Updated: Jan 23, 2012 at 4:52 PM MDT

Denver - It wasn't too long ago that all of the rules for fracking chemicals were sorted out. Now, the oil and gas industry is fighting another battle.

New technology is putting oil and gas drills closer to populated areas in Colorado, which is raising tension over where drilling can be done. Colorado lawmakers want to regulate the placement of drilling rigs.

Energy companies, however, are pushing back and could have some pull: it's an industry that employs some 190,000 Coloradans and contributes more than $18 billion a year to the state economy.

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Penni said on Friday, Feb 3 at 5:05 AM

I love Colorado, I want to keep living here, I also want to keep being able to breathe fresh air, drink clean water and walk through our mountains that are not polluted & devastated by producing fossil fuel energies. If you plan on staying here, if you plan on raising your children here, why wouldn't you turn your considerable knowledge and talents towards creating something new and better?

Penni said on Friday, Feb 3 at 5:05 AM

Unfortunately, with fossil fuels, the opposite is becoming true, why?...because the oil & gas boom are over without the use of chemicals and technologies that are harming the environment. If they harm the environment, we ourselves are harmed. Yes, it true that old cars are neat looking, and a pleasure to drive to church on Sundays, gas is great to cook with & it's nice to stay warm in the winter...does that mean we can't find a better way to achieve all those things? Does it mean that you can't turn your mind & your talents to jobs that produce energy in a clean way? Shell is right now developing green technologies in Colorado Springs, have you checked into a job with them? They KNOW that there needs to be revision in the industry,so they & others are making a start. As much as you fear your futures in oil & natural gas towns, that doesn't mean you can't have that town become an industry leader in another form does it?

Penni said on Friday, Feb 3 at 5:04 AM

All of you seem to be so locked into the concept that fossil fuels are the only thing that will ever work, that you can't see that if you work in the oil or gas industry that you are already experienced enough to work in an alternative energy field, what is it...are you just afraid that your comfort zone is going to be stretched? You aren't ignorant people, you're not dumb, can't you learn to even think outside the box of fossil fuels? Why should advancing new technologies to provide for a cleaner environment be so scary for you? Am I saying that we should immediately cut off all the plants that are now producing, NO, I am saying that 10 BILLION dollars that are going every year to subsidize the oil & gas industry right now, could be making some excellent headway on alternative energies. As in any new technology, the beginning years are necessarily funded to develop them, soon they become cheaper to reproduce the equipment and the more the technology advances.

d said on Wednesday, Jan 25 at 11:01 PM

just another test of the natives submissiveness

tater said on Tuesday, Jan 24 at 7:52 PM

Just another liberal environmentalist showing their intelligence.

natural gas drilling is killing coloradoans said on Monday, Jan 23 at 11:55 PM

Go soak in a fracking pond you fracking gasholes.

Floyd said on Monday, Jan 23 at 10:20 PM

So, Penni, Where is all, I do mean ALL, of the alternative energy products the environmentalists got well over a hundred billion dollars to dream up that will easily compete with oil and gas? I'm talking about products the everyday unemployed American can afford? Hey Penni, we're waiting, but don't wait to long, you won't have any energy to build your stuff with.

jamie said on Monday, Jan 23 at 9:40 PM

well i look at it this way. too many families rely on the oil and gas field for a pay check. and for some small towns they would be ghost towns with out the oil and gas industry. almost every where you go you will find the oil and gas industry. we are a petroleum based society so with out it you would not have half the things that you have. so if you don't like it move. if you still have questions maybeyou should go and talk to someone who actually works in the field to get the truth and not turn to some hippy activists who think that they now it all. ;p so on that note the oil and gas industry feeds my family and yours !

Responsible Citizen said on Monday, Jan 23 at 9:14 PM

Well, we can shoot any growth and homes being constructed in the future. Personally I love seeing old cars and people booted out of their homes., Hello. Wake up. Without Gas/oil production, Colorado will sink into a tupor. Hello again, WE NEED THE GAS AND OIL COMPANIES AND IT IS OVER REACTION FROM NUTTY PEOPLE THAT KEEP US FROM GETTING AHEAD. Thanks Penni, we need just a whole lot more people like you to stick their noses where they should keep them out.

tater said on Monday, Jan 23 at 6:40 PM

Have it your way Penni. Shut off all of your OWN natural gas and refuse to use your stove, furnace and water heater. Then will you be happy? You have no clue what you're getting involved in and what end result you are causing for yourself and the entire Western Slope. Just move away for the sake of everyone.

Penni said on Monday, Jan 23 at 1:11 AM

You have reported it wasn't too long ago that all of the rules for fracking chemicals were sorted out. When exactly did this "sorting out all of the rules for fracking chemicals" take place? Was that after any environmental studies, or after our state officials got enough campaign money? Was that actually due to any independent research on those chemicals, or supposedly tried and true "risk assessments" over previous wells that have been dug and no one has gotten sick yet? We know it must have been recently, because no people I talked who were at the FRAM meeting back in Nov. received much actual data at all on the fracking chemical analysis other than it was supposed to be in a 'foam' form that somehow wouldn't 'leach' into any water system. Of course, now we have ADDED incentive of possible earthquakes caused by fracking, or do you think that was just an anomaly?

Penni said on Monday, Jan 23 at 1:11 AM

Also, out of those supposed 190,000? jobs in Colorado that oil & gas brings in...how many of these are permanent, what is the usual length of employment for these workers in one place in this state? Are these people FROM Colorado or from other states brought into work here? Are these employees now permanent residents of Co? Are they going to live here, make a home here, raise their children here? Are they going to deal with the pollution here after they're done with their jobs

Penni said on Monday, Jan 23 at 12:45 AM

would really like to see the resources on those numbers you threw forth Cori. Seeing as how the oil & gas companies are heavily subsidized by the Fed,to the tune of billions/yr ..how is it that those companies still need these subsidies if they are making that much money?

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