Oil and gas people? Or anti-fracking groups? Who will win the support of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission as it adopts sweeping new regulations in the coming weeks?
This week, the Commission heard arguments for and against the issue of how friendly local governments can be about oil and gas well locations. As the Denver Business Journal reported, the Commission will be siding either with pro-industry county governments that depend on oil and gas economically or with anti-fracking local governments and state legislative leaders who don’t.
The COGCC took opening public comment Monday about its rules overhaul Monday, and the initial comments from elected officials laid out the divide.
County officials from places economically reliant on oil and gas production, often Republicans, argued that proposed COGCC rules should give more latitude to local governments, while backers of reforms — including the lawmakers, Democrats, leading the state Legislature — wanted the COGCC’s state authority to set more strict standards than exist today.
Click here for more of the story by the Denver Business Journal.
