Colorado air quality officials have adopted new oil and gas regulations requiring companies to more frequently inspect equipment for planet-warming and smog-forming gases. At the same time, the move gave confidence to environmentalists in their fight against the oil and gas industry.
The toughest of the rules will be on operators drilling near homes and schools, according to the Colorado Independent.
The nine-member Colorado Air Quality Control Commission wrapped up a three-day rulemaking in Denver after hearing from advocates, residents and oil and gas representatives over the last week. The new rules are the first the commission has adopted since Gov. Jared Polis in April signed into law Senate Bill 181, which called on the commission to slash emissions from oil and gas operations.
People on both sides of the heated debate say they were struck by the tone of the commission, which largely dismissed concerns from the industry that the regulations would increase the cost of doing business in Colorado.
For advocates, this was seen as a welcome sign that a shift is underway in Colorado, a state that has seen a five-fold increase in oil production over the last decade. The $30-billion industry long has held considerable sway in the state legislature and in the former Hickenlooper administration. It acquiesced to 2014 methane regulations and used that as leverage to quash additional regulations by arguing Colorado has some of the toughest rules in the nation.
“For so long they have ruled the roost,” said Jeremy Nichols, the climate and energy program director for WildEarth Guardians, of the industry. “The air commission is realizing they have a public mandate. The tables have turned.”
The industry had concerns about the tone of the Air Pollution Control Division.
“Unfortunately, politics can often get in the way of effective governance, and that’s what we saw in this rulemaking,” said Dan Haley, president and CEO of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association, in a statement. He added, “The strident anti-industry tone from the APCD staff today during its rebuttal was striking and a departure from how we’ve done business in Colorado in the past.”
The commission voluntarily went above and beyond what the Polis administration’s Air Pollution Control Division recommended, adopting a new requirement that some operators drilling within 1,000 feet of a home will have to inspect for leaks every month.
Source: Colorado Independent